Study On Warehouse Processes And Seller Support At

Flipkart

A Summer Internship Project for

Master of Business Administration

By

Tanmay Sinha

Under the guidance of

Mr. Rajeev Ranjan Prof. Ashok Kumar Sharma

Learning & Development School of Business
Flipkart Galgotias University, Gautam
Buddh Nagar)

2nd December, 2019

1
Study On Warehouse Processes And Seller Support At
Flipkart

By

Tanmay Sinha

December, 2019

2
 Study On Warehouse Processes And Seller Support At
Flipkart

By
Tanmay Sinha

Under the guidance of

Mr. Rajeev Ranjan Prof. Ashok Kumar Sharma

Learning & Development SoB
Flipkart Galgotias University,
GB nagar

December, 2019

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 Certificate of Approval

The following Summer Internship Project Report titled “Study on Warehouse Processes And
Seller Support At Flipkart" is hereby approved as a certified study in management carried out
and presented in a manner satisfactory to warrant its acceptance as a prerequisite for the award
of Master of Business Administration for which it has been submitted. It is understood that by
this approval the undersigned do not necessarily endorse or approve any statement made,
opinion expressed or conclusion drawn therein but approve the Summer Internship Project
Report only for the purpose it is submitted to the Summer Internship Project Report
Examination Committee for evaluation of Summer Internship Project Report

1. Faculty Mentor Mr. Ashok Kumar Sharma ___________________

2. Industry Mentor Mr. Rajeev Ranjan ___________________

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 Certificate from Summer Internship Project Guides

This is to certify that Mr.Tanmay Sinha, a student of the Master of Business Administration-
Logistics & Supply Chain Management has worked under our guidance and supervision. This
PBL Report has the requisite standard and to the best of our knowledge no part of it has been
reproduced from any other s project, monograph, report or book.

It is understood that by this approval the undersigned do not necessarily endorse or approve any
statement made, opinion expressed or conclusion drawn therein but approve the Program based
learning Report only for the purpose it is submitted to the Program Based Learning Report
Examination Committee for evaluation of Program Based Learning Report

Mr. Ashok Kumar Sharma

Faculty Mentor

School of Business- Galgotias University

Date:

5
 DECLARATION

I the undersigned solemnly declare that the project report “Study On Warehouse
Processes And Seller Support At Flipkart” is based on my own work carried out during the
course of our study under the supervision of Mr Ashok Sharma.
I assert the statements made and conclusions drawn are an outcome of my research
work. I further certify that:
1. The work contained in the report is original and has been done by me under the
general supervision of my supervisor.
2. The work has not been submitted to any other Institution for any other degree/
diploma/certificate in this university or any other University of India or abroad.
3. We have followed the guidelines provided by the university in writing the
report.
4. Whenever we have used materials (data, theoretical analysis, and text) from
other sources, we have given due credit to them in the text of the report and
giving their details in the reference.

Tanmay Sinha

18SLAM2010001

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 Executive Summary

This internship was a great opportunity to apply the skills learned during my time
pursuing a Masters in Business Administration degree in Logistics & Supply chain
management to a very intensive, fast moving and frankly unforgiving industry where
every second counts and there is a pressure to make few or no mistakes at all.

For my internship, I got an opportunity to work at Flipkart. In this comprehensive

report, I have discussed about every major aspect of the company which I have
observed and perceived during my internship tenure. The first part comprises the
detail about the company and its SWOT analysis from the time of its incorporation to
the current position along with its processes, policies and procedures.

During the internship i worked with Flipkarts outbound department and various sellers
in and around NCR, that involved me managing tasks such as :

• Packaging Management
• Fulfillment
• Order Picking

All these departments have been discussed in detail throughout this report.

The main purpose of the internship was to learn by working in practical environment
and to apply the acquired during the studies in a real world scenario in order to tackle
the problems using the knowledge and skill learned during the academic process.
This report covers many important aspects which are related with logistics operations.

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During the course of the internship, my aim was to see how costs and time can be
reduced during the various processes and what else could be done to improve
visibility throughout the supply chain. Instituting measures that bring problems to the
surface is very critical for an organization and yields benefits in the long run. It was
also interesting to see how the concept of 5S was embedded in the warehouse process.

• Sort

• Set

• Shine

• Standardize

• Sustain

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to thank our Program chair Mr. Ashok Kumar Sharma, Dr.
Mohammad Akhtar for supporting us throughout the program and giving us the
opportunity to work with e-commerce leader “FLIPKART” and understand its
warehouse and packaging operations at Binola warehouse.

Furthermore, I would like to thank Mr. Rajeev Ranjan our Trainer for guiding and
helping us to gain knowledge on “Packaging and warehouse operations at flipkart”
and complete the program successfully.

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS

S. No Particulars Page No.

1 CERTIFICATE OF APPROVAL 4
2 CERTIFICATE FROM PROJECT GUIDE 5
3 DECLARATION 6
4 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 7
5 ACKNOLEDGEMENTS 9
6 COMPANY PROFILE 11-14
7 INTERNSHIP PROFILE 15
8 FLIPKART SWOT ANALYSIS 16
9 RELEVANCE & SIGNIFICANCE OF STUDY 17
10 PURPOSE & OBJECTIVE 18
11 FLIPKART SUPPLY CHAIN MODEL 19-20
12 WAREHOUSE PROCESSES 21-26
13 ORDER PICKING METHODS 27-30
14 COST OF ERRORS DUE TO WRONG PICKING 31-32
15 RETURNS PROCESSING 33-34
16 DESPATCH 35-37
17 PACKAGING GUIDELINES 38
18 KEY POINTS ABOUT PACKAGING 39
19 FLIPKART PACKAGING MATERIAL 40-43
20 SELLER: BESTTALK 44
21 SELLER: UPPER CIRCUIT 45
22 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION 46
23 REFERENCES 47

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 Company Profile : Flipkart India Pvt.Ltd

Flipkart was co-founded by Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal in Oct 2007. Both are
graduates from IIT-Delhi and have prior work experience in Amazon.com They both
were solid coders and wanted to open a portal that compared different e-commerce
websites, but there were hardly any such sites in India and they decided to give birth
to their own e- commerce venture - Flipkart.com.

Thus was born Flipkart in Oct 2007 with an initial investment of 4 lac (co- founders
savings). It was never going to be easy since India has had bad past experiences with
e-commerce trading. It was not an easy segment to break into, people were very
particular in paying money for something which they had not seen and received. The
trust was missing in the Indian customers. So what Flipkart had to do was to instil
trust and faith in their customers.

Flipkart began with selling books, since books are easy to procure, target market
which reads books is in abundance, books provide more margin, are easy to pack and
deliver, do not get damaged in transit and most importantly books are not very
expensive, so the amount of money a customer has to spend to try out one's service for
one time is very minimal. Flipkart sold only books for the first two years.

Flipkart started with the consignment model (procurement based on demand) i.e. they
had ties with 2 distributors in Bangalore, whenever a customer ordered a book, they
used to personally procure the book from the dealer, pack the book in their office and
then courier the same. In the initial months the founder's personal cell numbers used
to be the customer support numbers. So, in the start they tried their best to provide
good service, focus on the website - easy to browse and order and hassle-free, and
strove hard to resolve any customer issues. Since there were not any established
players in the market, this allowed them a lot of space to grow, and they did in fact
grew very rapidly.

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Flipkart had a revenue of 4 crore in FY 2008 - 2009, 20 crore in FY 2009 - 2010, 75
crore in FY 2010 - 2011, and the revenue for FY 2011 - 2012 which ends on 31 Mar
2012 is expected to be 500 crore. This is indeed a massive growth. The company
targets revenues of 5000 crore by 2015. he company started from 2 employees and
now has around 4500 employees.

Flipkart started with consignment model as discussed above, since most of the
customer issues like delivery delays etc. result from procurement model, the company
started opening its own warehouses as it started getting more investments. The
company opened its first warehouse in Bangalore and later on opened warehouses in
Delhi, Kolkatta and Mumbai. Today the company works with more than 500
suppliers. As on date more than 80% orders of Flipkart are handled via warehouses
which help in quick and efficient service.

A humble beginning from books, Flipkart now has a gamut of products ranging from:
Cell phones, laptops, computers, cameras, games, music, audio players, TV's,
healthcare products, washing machines etc. etc. Still, Flipkart derives around 50% of
its revenue from selling books online. Flipkart is the Indian market leader in selling
books both offline and online, it enjoys an online share of around 80%. The electronic
items have a large number of players like Naaptol, Letsbuy, Indiaplaza, Tradus,
Infibeam, Yebhi etc. The electronic market share is distributed among them in
different unknown proportions.

India has around 13.5 crore internet users today where as the number of homes with
Cable and Satellite (C&S) television is 10.5 crore. The expected internet users will
reach a figure of 30 crore by 2014 and C&S homes are expected to be 14 crore by
2014. Thus India has a tremendous internet growth and with the customers getting
accustomed to e-commerce, the future of e-commerce sector is definitely rosy. An
approximated 25 lac people have transacted online this year, the number is all set to
increase with time.

Also to mention most of the Flipkart customers use internet from PC's/Laptops to
order goods. The use of mobile internet is very less at the moment, but with the advent

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of smart phones the use of mobile internet for e-commerce transactions will soar with
time. India has 8 crore mobile net users at the moment, the number is expected to
swell to 22.5 crore by 2014.

In the financial year 2008-09, Flipkart had made sales to the tune of 40 million Indian
rupees. This soon increased to 200 million Indian rupees the following year.

Flipkart targets to hit the one billion mark by 2015. Going by their ever increasing
popularity, it does not seem like a farfetched thought.

Back at the time when Flipkart was launched, any e-commerce company faced two
major difficulties. One was the problem of online payment gateways. Not many
people preferred online payment and the gateways were not easy to set up. Flipkart
tackled this problem by introducing cash on delivery and payment by card on delivery
in addition to others.

The second problem was the entire supply chain system. Delivering goods on time is
one of the most important factor that determines the success of an e-commerce
company. Flipkart addressed this issue by launching their own supply chain
management system to deliver orders in a timely fashion.

Flipkart also acquired few companies like Myntra.com, LetsBuy.com etc., to better
their presence in the market. With the entry ofAmazon.com in India, the competition
between the companies has seen many takeovers.

Flipkart’s journey from a small book e-retailer to India’s largest e- commerce platform
inspires a generation of start-ups. In a country where stereotypes are common,
Flipkart managed to break the norm and change the e-commerce industry in India for
ever. Flipkart’s story proves that if you have a great idea, and you are a doer and not a
thinker, success is not far off.

On 4 May 2018, it was reported that the US retail chain Walmart had won a bidding
war with Amazon to acquire a majority stake in Flipkart for US$15 billion. On 9 May
2018, Walmart officially announced its intent to acquire a 77% controlling stake in

13
Flipkart for US$16 billion, subject to regulatory approval. Following the proposed
purchase, Flipkart co-founder Sachin Bansal left the company, while the remaining
management now report to Marc Lore, CEO of Walmart eCommerce US. Walmart
president Doug McMillon cited the "attractiveness" of the market, explaining that
their purchase "is an opportunity to partner with the company that is leading
transformation of eCommerce in the market”. Indian traders protested against the deal,
considering the deal a threat to domestic business.

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 Internship Profile

Company Name: Flipkart India

Location: Flipkart warehouse, Binola, Haryana & Various sellers across NCR

Industry Mentor: Mr. Rajeev Ranjan, L&D, Flipkart

Type of Internship: Field

Objective: Observe and analyze the order fulfilment process at Flipkart so as to

understand the features incorporated by the organization, plus understand the key
areas where improvement can be made so as to reduce costs and order processing lead
times.

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Flipkart: SWOT Analysis

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 Relevance & Significance Of The Internship

Relevance of the study:

• It provides a better understanding of the importance of elements such as display,

security etc. in case of e-commerce operations.
• It gives an idea as to how all areas of a business integrate to efficiently perform one
single function.
• It relates the learning of the course to real life scenario, mainly the roles played by
the logistic and supply system in an organisation.
• It provides an insight into the order fulfilment process at warehouse, notably the
packaging process, and how Kaizen can be implemented or further streamline the
processes.

Significance of the Study:

The study is significant because order fulfilment process makes the basis of efficient
working of any organization, be it product oriented, service oriented or a combination
of both. Especially for purely e-commerce sites such as Flipkart, the need to increase
the efficiency of the whole process becomes even more important. E-commerce sites
have a greater need for this because warehouse processes must be streamlined and
optimised on a microscopic level.

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 Purpose & Objective Of The Study

The purpose of the study i.e. the reason for the study is to understand the order
fulfilment process, to analyse the various steps taken to ensure that the right order
reached the right customer at the right time, in the right quantity and in the right
condition.

The objective of the study is to observe and analyze the order fulfilment process at
Flipkart so as to understand the features incorporated by the organization, plus
understand the key areas where improvement can be made so as ti reduces costs and
order processing lead times.

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The Flipkart Supply Chain Model

FIGURE 1: FLIPKART SUPPLY CHAIN

FLOWCHART

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FIGURE 2: FLIPKART REVERSE SUPPLY CHAIN

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 WAREHOUSE PROCESSES

Improvement comes from simplifying processes and procedures. These processes

need to be aligned and working optimally if we are to improve efficiency and, as a
result, reduce cost within the warehouse operation.

Detailed process documents need to be produced and made available to all employees.
These need to be continually reviewed and updated. According to WERC (2010)
companies who exhibit good to best practice processes define and publish process
descriptions and assign ownership of the processes to responsible individuals.
Supplementing written instructions with photographs also improves understanding.

Although warehouses differ in terms of size, type, function, ownership and location
the fundamental processes remain.

These processes include pre-receipt, receiving, put-away, storage, picking,

replenishment, value-adding services and despatch.

Warehouse Processes: Receiving and Put-away 59

By ensuring that the correct processes are in place and operating optimally, companies
can not only improve accuracy and efficiency but also take advantage of the new
technology available.

Figure1 shows each main warehouse activity as a percentage of cost, emphasizing the
importance of the pick, pack and despatch operation. These figures will vary
significantly depending on the type of operation.

For example, companies which are under pressure to speed up throughput are likely to
use concepts such as cross docking, thus reducing the amount of time spent on put-
away, picking and retrieval.

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 FIGURE 3-Warehouse activities as a percentage of total cost

FIGURE 4: Warehouse processes

The main activities mentioned above are shown in Figure 2 together with their
relationships.

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Receiving :

Receiving, goods-in or in-handling is a crucial process within the warehouse.

Ensuring that the correct product has been received in the right quantity and in the
right condition at the right time is one of the mainstays of the warehouse operation.
These elements are often termed supplier compliance.

However, it is my contention that once goods have arrived at the warehouse it is

usually too late to rectify most receiving issues. I believe there are many steps that
need to be taken before the actual act of receiving takes place.

When goods arrive at flipkart they are checked with the bill of lading to ensure all
items are present.

Inhandling:

One of the main challenges for a warehouse manager is to match labour hours with
work content. Handling a product the least amount of time possible (labour touch
points) leads to reduced labour hours and as a consequence, reduced cost. In-
handling makes up approximately 20 per cent of the total direct labour cost within a
retail warehouse.

Preparation:

Prior to the actual receipt a number of processes need to take place. The first step is to
ensure that suppliers deliver into the warehouse when you decide, not when it suits
them. There will be exceptions to this. For example, it is difficult for parcel delivery
companies to adhere to booking times because of the nature of their deliveries;
however, pallet and full-load delivery companies expect to be given specific delivery
times, albeit this is not their preferred option.

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By providing delivery times for each supplier or their subcontractors, you are in
control and able to match your work hours to work content. A booking-in or dock
scheduling system needs to be introduced.

At flipkart, strict schedules were maintained for inbound goods so as to keep

processes on time and avoid delays.

Offloading:

On arrival, the vehicle details need to be checked against the booking reference and
the vehicle allocated a loading bay or location in the yard. Any vehicle seals need to
be checked against the delivery paperwork.

Checking:

Once the goods are offloaded, you need to decide whether they need to be checked
before put-away. The ideal scenario is to move inbound goods directly from the
loading bay to the storage area or despatch area if goods are cross docked.

Once the products were checked against the BoL they were sent to the staging area for
WID number generation.

Recording:

Depending on the product, there could be a requirement to record more than just the
standard data such as product code, description and quantity on arrival. Other
information could include batch or lot numbers and serial numbers. Barcode scanning,
which we will look at in the following chapters, is ideal for this type of data capture.

A green barcode slip was pasted to each product which served as flipkarts warehouse
ID.

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Put Away:

Many of today’s WMSs allocate product locations in advance and instruct the operator
as to where to place the goods. This can be directly to the despatch area if the product
is to be cross docked as discussed above, to the pick face as a form of replenishment
or to a reserve or bulk-storage location.

Order Picking:

In order to be productive and efficient in the picking process, a great deal of

preparation needs to take place. This includes having a comprehensive under- standing
of the products and their sales patterns and the data available to produce ABC
analyses.

Placing products in the most appropriate location reduces travel distances and strain
on operatives and as a consequence leads to improved productivity and overall cost
reduction.

According to OPS (2009) the ‘Ten Commandments of picking’ are as follows:

. Design for flexibility and scalability – things change – build for today,
design for the future.

. Keep pickers picking... not waiting or undertaking other tasks such as

carton erection, packing, labelling, etc.

. Minimize travel.

. Minimize product touches. If you have expert pickers you shouldn’t

need to check their work.

. Never let pickers arrive at an empty location.

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. Measure, measure, measure

. Pick logically, slot intelligently.

. Pick accurately – get it right first time.

. Continue to learn and explore.

. Advocate continuous improvement.

FIGURE 5: ORDER FULFILLMENT PROCESS

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 Order Picking Methods

Pick by label:

In this system, pick lists are a series of labels on a sheet, which are printed in pick
order. The picker attaches a label to each item picked and returns any unused labels to
the supervisor’s office. Any discrepancies are checked immediately and additional
labels printed if the stock is available elsewhere in the warehouse. This can eliminate
a step at the despatch area as address labels are already attached. It’s also more
accurate than paper picking as you can soon tell if there has been a mis-pick in terms
of quantity.

Pick by voice :

The use of voice technology is gaining ground in warehouses globally, particularly for
order picking, although other processes such as cycle counting, put-away and
replenishment also utilize the system. Many companies are moving directly from
paper picking to voice and bypassing barcode scanning.

Operators are issued with a headset and a microphone together with a small terminal
that is attached to a belt or can be worn on the wrist. The WMS sends messages to the
computer via radio frequency (RF) transmissions, utilizing transmitters installed
throughout the warehouse, and these messages are converted into voice commands.
The operator also uses voice to communicate back to the system.

The list of benefits are stated as being very comprehensive. They include:

● increased accuracy;

● increased productivity;

● reduction in paper usage;

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 FIGURE 7: How Voice Picking outperforms
scanning

FIGURE 6: Benefits of Voice Picking

● reduction in errors through elimination of re-keying data;

● improved safety through hands- and eyes-free operation;

● reduction in damage;

● real-time stock updates leading to fast and accurate replenishment;

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 FIGURE 9 : Pick rate comparison for various pick technologies (Wulfratt 2013)

FIGURE 8 : 1D & 2D Barcodes

Barcode Scanning :

A barcode consists of a series of vertical bars of varying widths that represent letters,
numbers and other symbols. Barcodes are used to identify products, locations in the
warehouse, containers (totes, cartons, pallets), serial and batch numbers.

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Pick by light/Pick to Light :

To begin the process an operator scans a barcode on an arriving pick tote or shipping
carton which denotes the next order number to be picked. This com- municates to the
system that the operator is ready to pick. The system then sends a message to the zone
in which the operator is stationed and all the pick locations for that particular order.

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 Cost of Errors Due To Incorrect Order Picking

It is an accepted fact that increased errors lead to increased costs.

There are many calculations for the cost of a mis-pick. The elements involved in an
incorrect pick include:

● cost of recovering the item;

● labour cost of in-handling and checking the item on its return;

● cost of picking the replacement item;

● cost of re-packing;

● cost of re-delivery;

● administration costs of handling credit claims, etc;

● cash flow with reference to non-payment of invoice;

● potential loss of sale for the product incorrectly despatched;

● cost of re-training staff; and

● possible stock write-off if the returned product is outside an

acceptable shelf life or has been damaged in transit.

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In addition, if the error is an under-pick then it could result in a lost sale and the
associated margin. If it’s an over-pick and is reported, there is the cost of transport to
collect the item and labour costs as above or potentially a loss of margin in persuading
the customer to keep the item. If not reported, the cost becomes the loss of the product
and margin.

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 Returns Processing
The processing of returns has gained increasing importance in the ware- house over
the past few years. There is now an increasing awareness of the economic value of
reusing products and the effect on cash flow of perfectly serviceable items that can be
repackaged and made available for sale. There is also the possibility of fines if
products and packaging are not disposed of in an environmentally friendly way.

Doing nothing about returns costs money. They take up space, are difficult to count
during stock takes, difficult to value and, more importantly, could be back on sale
rather than taking up much-needed space within the warehouse. The alternative is
ordering further stock with all its inherent costs.

FIGURE 10: The Returns Cycle

Prior to making any decision regarding a reverse logistics operation one needs to
calculate the following:

● percentage and value of goods returned directly to stock and to

vendor;
● percentage of goods refurbished and returned to stock;

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 ● percentage of goods dismantled and used for spares;
● percentage of goods destroyed or given away to charity, etc;
● percentage of goods returned due to manufacturing defects; and
● percentage of goods returned due to sales department, warehouse or
consumer error.

In order to justify a returns processing operation the following needs to be calculated:

Total cost of returns processing + cash flow impact versus purchasing/

manufacturing new + cost of disposal and cash flow impact

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 Despatch

The order cycle time or lead time from order receipt to despatch is continually
shortening and there is increased pressure on the warehouse manager to coordinate all
activities to ensure that product is despatched on time and complete.

Packing – pieces/items:

Once product has been picked there is the question of how it is packaged for despatch.
As previously discussed, with individual order picks the operator may well package
the product immediately, attach shipping labels and where required insert despatch
documentation and invoices.

This reduces the number of touch points in the warehouse but does take the operator
away from the prime task of picking.

If orders are required to be checked on despatch this is an ideal time to add the
paperwork and affix labels. In terms of checking, items can be removed from the pick
container, checked against the order and returned to the original carton or if the order
was picked into a tote it can be transferred to a shipping carton. Other methods of
checking include weighing the carton and comparing this weight with a system
generated weight.

Packing – cartons :

Full carton despatch is somewhat easier to manage. Individual cartons may require the
attachment of a shipping label which may be generated from the WMS or from a
carrier system such as those operated by carriers.

In terms of multiple carton dispatch, firstly there is a need to establish whether it is

more cost effective to despatch via a parcel network or a pallet distribution or LTL
carrier.

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Loading :

The efficient loading of containers and trailers is crucial in today’s environment of

rising fuel prices. Unused space is inefficient and can cost a company a great deal of
money.

Efficient loading of vehicles and containers begins with the initial packaging of the
products.

Companies need to ensure that the outer packaging of their products is designed to fit
perfectly onto the pallets used for both transportation and storage. The ideal is to
ensure no overhang whatsoever with a reduction in unused space. It also needs to be
robust enough to travel.

Shipping :

Many operations are now taking orders late into the evening and despatching that
same night for next-day delivery. A retailer in India have a cut-off time for internet
orders of 10 pm for next-day delivery.

Work plans are now centred around the latest despatch time for orders, and managers
work backwards from this ensuring that all processes are completed and both labour
and equipment are made available at the right time to meet these deadlines.

The despatch process has to be managed precisely and be aligned with most other
activities within the warehouse. If, for example, receiving and despatch share the same
doors, a daily schedule needs to be drawn up to ensure that labour and equipment are
utilized as efficiently as possible, the work content is matched to the number of doors
available and congestion is avoided in the dock area.

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Documentation :

Finally, despatch documentation and labelling needs to be completed to ensure

compliance with customer requirements and government legislation. Different
countries will have different requirements and these will also differ if shipments are
within country or for export.

Any errors in the export paperwork can result in non-shipment, seizure, fines or
delays.

37
 ORDER PACKAGING AT FLIPKART

Packaging Guidelines:

Once you know that you have received an order, the next step is to know how to pack
your product.
Here we discuss why good packaging is important and what are the guidelines to be
followed while packing the product for delivery.
It is needless to say that good packing is of utmost importance to achieve customer
satisfaction. According to internal flipkart reports, about 50% customers expect their
online orders to arrive in premium packaging.

For flawless packaging, given below are some guidelines :

1. A corrugated box or a carton is primarily used to hold the product and to stack it
during transport.
2. A Flipkart logo tape is a sign of reliability and consistency to customers.
3. An easy-to-use tape dispenser is an added advantage.
4. Using a standard 10mm bubble wrap will protect the content.
5. Void fillers provide further protection to the product.

It is important to make sure to use only the Flipkart branded packaging material.
Sellers are advised to order packaging material from authorized vendors only using
the e-mail ID registered on Flipkart.

If these packaging rules are not followed, the product may suffer damages. In that
case, the product may get returned and the seller loses valuable time, effort and money
that has gone into dispatching the product.

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 KEY POINTS ABOUT FLIPKART PACKAGING

Use strong reinforced packaging tapes instead of strings or weak tapes like masking
tapes.

Damaged or feeble boxes are a sign of bad packaging. Cartons with torn edges should
be completely avoided.

Use strong cartons made of durable material.

The item should be packed tightly so that the product does not shift inside the box.

Use standard packaging material like a 10mm bubble sheet to wrap the product, tapes
and labels to prevent tampering and fraudulent practices.

Use standard address labels and protect them with clear tapes.

39
Flipkart Packaging Material

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43
 Flipkart Seller Support

Besttalk International:

• Seller of mobile phone accessories such as cases, covers, screen protectors etc.

• Besttalk engages in very high volume of products sold via flipkart.

• The keep costs low and remain competitive by focusing on providing a superior
product at a cheaper price.

• The main focus here is to absolutely make sure that the customer receives the
correct order and in the right conduition.

• The accessories are packaged in a double protective layer so as to nullify the

chances of damage during transport.

• They use tape and printed labels for shipment, moving towards a laser printed
shipping label will enable them to save time and money in the long run.

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 Upper Circuit Footwear

• Upper Circuit is a seller of bargain footwear.

• Their warehouse houses around 2000 SKU’s.

• The lack of a WMS system of any kind poses problems for them, as employees need
to remember the exact location of a particular sku.

• The rate of returns here are pretty high, owing to the quality of the product and the
lack of any QC measure during the packaging process.

• The rate of returns at upper circuit is 20%.

• Organizing the warehouse, and implementing a strategy where speed and accuracy
are balanced along with tighter quality control measures will lead to an increase in
performance and lower the rate of returns.

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 CONCLUSION & RECOMMENDATION

There are many types of warehouses operating within very different supply chains. No longer
are they simply stockholding points.

Warehouses are, in the main, no longer seen as static storage units. Concepts such as
consolidation, cross docking and postponement have become commonplace with the ultimate
goal of stock reduction and increased throughput within the whole supply chain.

Retailers are continually looking to move stock back through the supply chain thus releasing
more sales space in store. This requires more control over the supply chain, improved
forecasting and accurate and timely information flow.

The advent of e-commerce has also changed the warehouse landscape appreciably, as has the
necessity for cost reduction and the growing pressure to reduce the impact of logistics
operations on the environment.

With the increasing threat of Amazon in the Indian market, it is pretty apparent that Flipkart
has very little scope of error as far as it s fulfilment process is concerned. As with supply
chain in general, operations in any enterprise must build a foundation from the ground up,
and in this regard Flipkart is no different.

From this internship I was able to find out some very glaring errors in their outbound
processes, such as a lack of standardisation on the packaging stations, high turnover of blue
collar staff and an acute lack of training given to them.

When the stakes are so high, as they are with the booming e-commerce industry in India, it
leaves absolutely no room for error, there has to be a degree of obsession when it comes to
implementing and enforcing processes and a level of micromanaging as well.

There also needs to be a greater involvement of the sellers in the whole process, mostly when
it comes to the release of orders by Flipkart.

In order to be productive and efficient in the picking process, a great deal of preparation
needs to take place. This includes having a comprehensive under- standing of the products
and their sales patterns and the data available to produce ABC analysis.
Placing products in the most appropriate location reduces travel distances and strain on
operatives and as a consequence leads to improved productivity and overall cost reduction.

46
 References

1. Bowersox, D. J., & Daugherty, P. J. (1992). Logistics Leadership – Logistics

Organizations of the Future. Logistics Information Management, 5(1). doi:
10.1108/09576059210011446

2. Richards, G. (2018). Warehouse management: a complete guide to improving

efficiency and minimizing costs in the modern warehouse. New York, NY: Kogan
Page.

3. Hompel, M., & Schmidt, T. (2014). Warehouse Management Automation and

Organisation of Warehouse and Order Picking Systems. Berlin: Springer Berlin.

4. Caron F, Marchet G, Perego A (2000) Optimal layout in low-level picker-to-part

systems. Int J Prod Res 38:101–117. doi:10.1080/002075400189608

5. Chen MC, Wu HP (2005) An association-based clustering approach to order

batching considering customer demand patterns. Omega—Int J Manag Sci
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