A Bomb In Your Pocket ?

By:Preeti Gulati

HISTORY OF NOKIA

BATTERY RECALL CASE

46 Million Defective BL-5C Batteries were Recalled

August 14 , 2007 – January 1,2008 (Product Advisory )

Media Assault & Nationwide Panic Phenomenal Level of Efforts at each

level 95% Batteries Replacements but Not

100%

OPERATIONS AT NOKIA

• In 2006 , Very Complex Supply chain Handled 900000 mobile devices per day

• 100 Billion Components• Since 1995 , They were trying to

create Demand Driven Supply Chain Linking with the consumers and host of suppliers .

• In 2007 , In a research Nokia Ranked Number One for the Excellence in SCM .

Challenges for Logistics Management

Topography of India

Varying Customer Habits

Diversity of Languages

Diversity of Customs

Highly congested Airports , ports and roadways .

Inadequate warehousing & Distribution facilities

Different Tax regimes & Bueareacratic Control

SOLUTION TO CHALLENGES

Nokia Established Its Own Storage &

Distribution Facilities .

Third Party Logistics (3PL ) service was

taken into Consideration to resolve the

Logistics Issues

STEPS TAKEN AT NOKIA

Online Check-In by Keying the Battery

Number at Co Website .

If battery is Affected it could be sent

to Customers address in 15 days

Thought a Small Scale Operation

Media Furor Raised

Sensational panic

Online Checking was not Effective in Rural India .

To Avoid this Panic 2 separate teams were formed :

Crisis management

Logistics Management

A local Solution was required to solve this

A SMS ( short Message Service ) was Activated so that

Customers could text the battery Number .

If Battery is Affected another message was send giving

Address Details .

Also Batteries were send to CCCs & RDs in case of

Directly Coming customers .

More than 3 million requests were filed within the

week

Toll free helpline was started but still it became an out

of reach Issue for Nokia .

The Batteries Started Coming from : Chennai ,

Singapore , Dusseldorf

Blue-Dart Couriers were not able to handle large

volumes

Contacted with DHL ( parent company of Blue-dart )

& set flat rates .

DHL set a makeshift packing and shipping facility .

40 employees from DHL Crew

Consultancy was Taken , 80 Temporary more workers

were hired .

Reverse Shipment

Environmental Concerns were Prevented

Customers were supposed to sent back

the Affected battery in the same courier

bags of DHL & Blue Dart .

4 Months Recall Operations – Ended in

December 2007 .