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Weaving
technology into traditional carpets
By Swati Prasad, ZDNet Asia on March 3, 2011
case study JAIPUR,
INDIA--Having implemented various IT tools including ERP,
CRM, barcodes and Autotex, Jaipur Rugs has not only made
carpet-weaving a more efficient business but also improved
the livelihood of thousands of weavers across India.
"When you know how to work with the limitations of
technology, you learn to make the most of it," Nand Kishore
Chaudhary, founder and managing director of Jaipur Rugs
Company, told ZDNet Asia in an interview. Technology mustn't
kill creativity, he said, adding that he has ensured this
does not ring true at Jaipur Rugs.
Chaudhary started his carpet business in 1978 with only two
looms and a few weavers. In 1990, he set up Jaipur Carpets
which was rechristened Jaipur Rugs Company in 2006. Since
then, the company has not looked back and is today a leading
manufacturer of hand-knotted carpets.
Traditionally, carpet-weaving used to take place through
contractors. The weavers were invariably exploited at the
hands of contractors who gave them measly wages in return
for highly-skilled labor.
Chaudhary did away with the middlemen by establishing a
direct link between the company and weavers. This way, he
created a unique business model wherein he engages 40,000
independent weavers located across India, mostly in remote
villages. None of these artisans are on the company's
payroll but are provided with training and professional
help.
Carpets manufactured by Jaipur Rugs are exported to over 30
countries across the world, including the United States,
which accounts of 60 percent of shipment, Europe and
Australia.
Many of these countries follow high quality and social
compliance standards, and ensuring consistent high quality
was a challenge for the Indian company. This was when
technology came to its aid.
New technology, old craft
In 2007, Jaipur Rugs implemented Microsoft's Dynamics
Navision enterprise resource planning (ERP) offering, which
includes a customer relationship management (CRM)
application. Today, 30 designers at the company's
headquarter in Jaipur design carpets using CAD Autotex. The
designs, known as maps, are then sent to weavers in
far-flung villages who follow the maps to weave carpets
using traditional looms.
Fifty quality supervisors located at 20 branches across
India routinely send out reports on the progress of these
carpets, as well as monitor quality. Jaipur Rugs Foundation,
a voluntary, non-profit organization, trains weavers through
its skill up gradation programs to enhance their earnings
and improve the quality of their carpets.
Through technology, the company has established links from
grassroots to retailers of the product. After the ERP
implementation, Jaipur Rugs' turnover grew from US$5.5
million (INR 250 million) to US$14.3 million (INR 650
million) in 2010.
"From around 20,000 carpets a year in 2006, we are now
manufacturing nearly 100,000 carpets and rugs," Yogesh
Chaudhary, the 24-year old son of Chaudhary and director of
Jaipur Rugs told ZDNet Asia.
The carpet industry is highly unorganized, skills driven and
dependent on manual labor. Moreover, the supply chain is
large and complex. For instance, besides sourcing raw
materials from different parts of India, Jaipur Rugs also
imports wool from Argentina, New Zealand, China and
Australia,.
"Our supply chain starts with the raw materials, such as
wool and silk, going up to procurement, manufacturing,
warehousing and sales. In all, there are 85 processes
involved from procurement to marketing of the carpets,"
Abhishek Sharma, ERP manager at Jaipur Rugs told ZDNet Asia.
Given these conditions, implementing an ERP solution was no
mean task.
With an office in Atlanta that
has 15 employees and 40 sales representatives, it was vital
to establish a link between the two offices so that
databases could be shared. In 2007, Jaipur Rugs spent
US$110,314 (INR 5 million) to deploy Dynamics Navision with
100 user licenses. The ERP system integrates functions such
as finance, manufacturing, distribution, CRM and e-commerce
data.
"Life has become much easier after the ERP implementation,"
Yogesh said, noting that the application provides real-time
information and is linked with several Web sites. "It gives
us the status on various job orders. We have 20 to 25 live
Web sites where these updates are put up." This provides
customers live information on the progress of their carpets.
Jaipur Rugs also has a back office in Jaipur that does data
entry, order processing, report and invoice work for its US
office.
While the ERP software improved efficiency within the
company, the supervisors visit the weavers twice a week to
ensure product quality at the loom level. They then return
to their branches to send out reports using the ERP
solution.
"Establishing connectivity in villages is quite a
challenge," Yogesh noted. The company uses virtual private
network (VPN) in remote villages and the quality supervisors
also use mobile phones to send information to the branch
offices.
"With the launch of 3G and broadband wireless access, we
hope to see an improvement in the connectivity scenario," he
added.
Ushering in social media
With around 300 employees and a turnover US$14.3 million,
Jaipur Rugs has an annual IT spend of US$341,976 (INR 15
million). Its IT team comprises 15 employees, 3 of whom
manage networking and hardware, 4 oversee the company's ERP
and 9 people handle online marketing.
Jaipur Rugs wants to further leverage IT. For instance, it
plans to launch a portal to allow its customers--mostly
large retailers--to view live images of the looms where
carpets are being weaved and receive an instant progress
report on their orders. "The customer portal should go live
in the next couple of months," Yogesh said.
He also underscored the importance of increasing the
company's social media presence.
Yogesh said: "We plan to enhance our presence on Facebook.
Social media gets you recognition and direct feedback from
the customers."
Jaipur Rugs' IT infrastructure comprises of a database
server, file server, terminal server, mail server, design
and development server, and backup server for the ERP and
payroll software. The company now plans to implement the new
generation Blade server that is touted to be significantly
more efficient. It is also planning to deploy Microsoft's
cloud-based CRM 2011.
Swati Prasad is a freelance IT writer based in India.
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