Confectionary Giant Reaps Sweet Rewards of Centralized Compliance

Confectionary Giant Reaps Sweet Rewards of Centralized Compliance

Most multinational corporations who seek to harness India’s growth potential are invariably confronted with a bewildering lineup of sanctions, approvals and compliances. This is further compounded by astonishing regional differences. Coming to terms with these unique challenges unlocks the potential of India’s burgeoning population of consumers.

The Indian subsidiary of the world’s third largest confectionery and gum manufacturing and distribution company faced similar hurdles. Boasting a global employee count of more than 17000 employees and operations in more than 50 countries, they were perplexed by the complexities of running operations in 8 indian states across 3 manufacturing locations and 6 offices, employing more than 2,000 people pan India.

Growing Pains

As the indian subsidiary grew, so did the operational nitty-gritties. The primary challenge lay in creating a baseline for the compliance requirements. According to a senior manager in the company, “The teams in each vertical and location, especially the existing north Indian plants and a new facility in Tamil Nadu, had vastly differing procedures, which was a definite challenge for all concerned.” Venturing into the Ayurvedic Proprietary medicine genre necessitated the capture of related compliances.

The organization needed a solution that would only need a small legal team to maintain a repository and to track legal and statutory compliance across verticals and geographical spread. Some of the practices and interpretations relating to compliance requirements varied widely,and with varying degrees of automation. As time went by, the fact that different manufacturing units had vastly different standing orders created quite a hurdle.

Expert Help

Realizing the need for specialist expertise, the company reached out to Proind, which provides web-based, enterprise-wide solutions to help companies understand, manage, track and control all compliance-centric activities across the organization. Initially, they were reluctant to adopt some of Proind’s recommendations vis-a-vis mapping compliances across multiple acts and laws. Due to this, they began to face operational difficulties when updating the same activity against several acts and laws. Recanting their earlier stance, they proceeded with the Proind team’s initial suggestion to map activities against multiple acts and laws at the same time. This gave rise to a comprehensive overhaul and re-do, but the resulting system was as robust and convenient as they had wanted it to be in the first place.

Perfecting the Process

Proind’s solution mapped all the licences and processes involved for each location and vertical and compiled a comprehensive framework that delivers immense value throughout its lifecycle. Prioritizing compliances as high, medium or low risk meant that the team could focus on the high and medium risk categories. Reprioritization made it easier to track these, and increased accountability through branch compliance mapping has ensured that no instance slips by unnoticed.

Comprehensive Compliance Framework

Proind conducted an in-depth compliance review exercise with legal and functional teams over an extended period of time. Subject matter experts visited the client’s manufacturing locations and held comprehensive discussions with the concerned teams. This helped establish a detailed compliance checklist for the entire organization, which was the first milestone in establishing a compliance framework in the organization.

The furnished solution was based on the Proind Compliance Controller platform, which captured multiple confectionary licenses, as well as the legal & statutory requirements for the entire product range including food, drugs and cosmetic products. Going a step further, Proind customized the requirements for each manufacturing location on the basis of its specific needs.

Training, Helpdesk and Updates

To ensure ease of transition, Proind provided Onsite and Virtual Training of resources across India. Help desk and legal update processes have also been established to ensure that the framework continues to deliver value throughout its lifespan.

Discernible Value

Proind’s furnished solution has a palpable benefit to the organization. Compliances, including event-based ones, are now convenient to track and can be managed by a relatively small team.

Centralized Monitoring

The entire process was mapped and resources were suitably aligned to ensure that the process could be monitored remotely. With this framework, a central Compliance Team can monitor and control compliance across all verticals, offices and projects, which results in significant savings of time and effort.

Real Time Visibility And Tracking Resulting In Mitigation of Risk

The established framework has ensured real-time visibility of compliances and a foolproof mechanism to track sanctions, approvals and renewals. This has resulted in an elimination of fines, penalties and risk at project sites, including contractor-specific compliances.