The PCM experts at NDS continuously undertake business development activities wherein the concept of PCs is promoted. The experts conduct outreach to various funding agencies who are keen to bring about a socioeconomic impact through livelihood initiatives such as dairying & animal husbandry at the grassroot level. These may include government, bilateral agencies and philanthropic organizations. The team provides project management support from ‘conception till its logical conclusion’ which includes but not limited to:
Institution Building is a process that leads a Producer Owned Enterprise (POE) (i.e. FPO or PC) to become truly ‘member centric’ i.e ‘member owned and controlled’, ‘inclusive’, ‘sustainable’, and ‘scalable’ business enterprise. This process aims at systemic and value-based strengthening of institutional capacities at all levels right from membership to governance. Institution Building is the core of any capacity-building intervention in the POE.
NDS has developed a multi-modular intervention to build shared values and vision for the PCs encompassing various segments that include the board members, professionals, field functionaries, Members, VCGs and MRGs, etc. The PCs strives to ensure that the membership-related “Core Design Principles” are consistently practiced.
The setting up of a robust value chain network from procurement (backward linkage) to sales (forward linkage) is integral to the success of the PC. This includes setting up of a 3 tier collection system including village level Milk Pooling Points, Bulk Milk Coolers / Milk Chilling Centres and processing plant at strategically feasible locations. This requires an indepth analysis of milk potential based on the breed wise milch animal population, the household consumption pattern and the marketable surplus.
One of the core objective of the PC is to ensure transparency across all operations. This is ensured through installation of computerised milk collection equipments at the pooling points. Inward and outward routes for milk collection and dispatch are suitably optimised to make the operations cost effective. The operations also strive to provide an assured market for milk producers either through institutional sales or sales through their own brand consistently round the year without any milk holiday.
For clarity and consistency in how to ensure best practices in various applications especially repetitive ones, Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) play an important role. NDS assist the PC in implementation of SOPs that it has developed.
SOPs are used to demonstrate compliance with the regulation or operational practices in Milk Collection starting from member enrolment to raw chilled milk dispatch to customer. SOPs developed lay down the exact steps of how to complete a task for each function in procurement of milk.
‘Governance’ means ‘the process of decision-making and the process by which decisions are implemented or not implemented’. The main pillars of Good Governance are Participation, Transparency, Accountability, Predictability, and Rule of Law.
In a nutshell, good governance is expected to achieve the following:
The core of Institution Building is to achieve a shared vision– most importantly among the owners i.e. member milk producers, their elected representatives i.e. the Board of Directors and the employees of the company. The process necessitates that the board of the PC evolves a set of organisational values and defines the Mission and vision of the company. These three guiding principles actually become living ones if they are understood, accepted and lived by all stakeholders of the company. To translate the intent of these guiding principles into practice, it becomes imperative to start with building Knowledge, Skill and Attitude of all the stakeholders of the PC. With the above there are several interventions designed and implemented by NDS facilitated PCs for various stakeholders.
Information and Communication Technology for maintaining transparent transactions and access to business intelligence in the PC becomes significantly important owing to the complexity of the value chain. IT system ensures that the data regarding quantity, fat and SNF of the milk supplied by the members is transmitted online from remote locations to the central server in real time, based on which the member payment is automatically calculated and the amount is transferred to the member’s bank account without any manual intervention. The IT system updates member data and the milk rate chart in the data processors at all the pooling points ensuring that milk is collected only from members.
Most PCs use world class ERP (SAP) and professionally managed Data Centers in their operations. The SAP solution has the capability of supporting professionals in managing different business functions like Finance & Costing, Human Resource Management, Production Planning, Material Management, Sales & Distribution, Project Management, Plant Maintenance and Quality Management more efficiently and enabling them in taking timely decisions leading to cost optimization, and thereby maximizing returns to the members.