Canon India discontinues direct ordering, post Japan quake

In a move to streamline

the supply chain management of inventories, post the Japan

earthquake, Canon India has discontinued direct ordering or online

placing of material/inventory of the distributors, with manual

inventory systems.

The implementation of this

new process was made effective from March 14, 2011. Owing to the

speculation of supply chain crunch of the products among traders,

partners have started placing the materials in large volumes.

Therefore, Canon has taken this step to ensure that none of its

distributors and traders keep the stocking of material excessively.

Alok Bharadwaj, Senior VP,

Canon India, confirmed, “We are closely monitoring the movement of

our product inventories, and action has been taken in this respect to

avoid holding of material in excess by our channel partners. Direct

ordering of material has been discontinued, until the situation gets

stable.” Sharing the implication of

Japan earthquake in India, Bharadwaj said, "Operations in eight

of our factories in Japan have been halted, due to severe power

shortage, which would certainly hit the supply of components and end

products, outside Japan. However in India, we don't see any impact,

since all the materials are been imported from Singapore.”

“As of now, we have

adequate stocking of products for the next one to three months, and

crisis will prevail after a month or so. Nevertheless, we are hoping

that our global task force might take immediate steps to pacify

control the situation by shifting the production lines to different

countries, since Canon has factories outside Japan as well,”

Bharadwaj maintained. Bharadwaj also refuted any

immediate impact on product pricing, however, he said, “We will go

with the market situation. If our competitors like Sony and Epson,

etc; take such decision, than we may follow it, but will not take any

such decision in isolation.” On the channel front,

Manoj Gupta, MD, Challenger Computers shared, “As of now, we are

not aware of any changes in the inventory system. We are placing the

order online. The market is moving smoothly and we don't fear any

supply crunch."