In Conversation with Dhiraj: Beyond Tools - Driving Transformation Through Alignment

As a senior supply chain leader, how do you align supply chain strategy with broader business goals to drive enterprise-level impact?

At Atul Ltd., our supply chain is not a support function, it is a strategic enabler of business transformation. We align our supply chain objectives directly with enterprise-level priorities like profitable growth, customer-centricity, ESG leadership, and digital integration.

By embedding sustainability (ISO 20400-aligned sourcing), digitalization (TMS, VMS, WMS), and risk intelligence into our supply chain strategy, we ensure operational resilience while contributing to enterprise ESG targets, cost competitiveness, and service differentiation. This alignment allows the Commercial function to deliver measurable impact from driving freight savings to achieving 70% sustainable procurement spend coverage, thus reinforcing Atul’s long-term value creation agenda.

How do you balance cost optimization with long-term supplier relationships and quality assurance?

Cost optimization is a priority, but not at the expense of quality or strategic partnerships. Our philosophy is “cost with context”: optimizing total cost of ownership, not just price.

Atul’s procurement framework emphasizes supplier segmentation, long-term contracts, and structured performance scorecards, enabling us to reward quality, reliability, and innovation, not just cost. Through open-book cost models, joint efficiency programs, and vendor training on ESG and digital maturity, we balance competitiveness with continuity. This has helped us nurture strategic suppliers while achieving year-over-year efficiency gains, without compromising product integrity or customer satisfaction.

In your experience, how does cross-functional collaboration between manufacturing, procurement, and commercial teams drive stronger outcomes?

Our supply chain success is rooted in collaborative execution across Manufacturing, Procurement, and Commercial. For example:

• Procurement partners with Manufacturing to co-develop specification-flexible sourcing and circular material inputs.

• Our Logistics and Commercial teams align closely to drive delivery performance, customer satisfaction, and inventory optimization across 70+ countries.

Joint dashboards, shared KPIs, and integrated decision-making forums ensure cross-functional alignment. This collaboration enabled the rollout of our Transportation Management System (TMS) and Vehicle Monitoring System (VMS), resulting in improved OTIF, lower carbon footprint, and enhanced real-time visibility across operations.

How do you ensure your supply chain evolves in step with digital transformation across the organization?

Digitalization is at the heart of our supply chain modernization. We’ve transitioned from reactive operations to data-driven, proactive decision-making. Through tools like Oracle ERP, TMS, WMS, iSourcing, and iSupplier platforms, we’ve digitized core processes from indent to invoice.

To ensure our supply chain evolves in sync with enterprise transformation:

• We map digital initiatives to business priorities (e.g., reducing freight cost per MT, enhancing delivery visibility).

• We upskill internal teams and suppliers through digital literacy workshops.

• We monitor adoption using KPIs like vendor onboarding time, sourcing cycle reduction, and real-time tracking coverage.

This integrated digital push has led to 15–20% improvement in operational efficiency and stronger governance across the value chain.

What role does leadership play in shaping supply chain culture, especially around accountability, agility, and innovation?

Leadership plays a pivotal role in setting the tone and tempo of supply chain transformation. At Atul, we anchor our culture in accountability, agility, and innovation:

• Accountability is driven through clear metrics, ownership dashboards, and tiered reviews.

• Agility is fostered by encouraging teams to pilot solutions (e.g., zero-touch freight settlement, AI-based demand forecasting).

• Innovation is embedded through cross-functional taskforces, digital experimentation, and a bias for continuous improvement.

As a leader, I prioritize transparency, empowerment, and purpose alignment, ensuring our teams see the bigger picture and act with speed, integrity, and creativity.

What key advice would you offer to organizations embarking on supply chain digital transformation, especially when balancing legacy systems, stakeholder alignment, and measurable ROI?

Digital transformation is not just a tech project, it’s a mindset shift and operating model redesign. My advice to organizations:

• Start with the “why”: Link digital investments to business outcomes (e.g., lower cost-to-serve, improved ESG compliance).

• Prioritize change management: Invest equally in people, processes, and tools. Legacy systems can coexist with new platforms through modular, API-based architecture.

• Build stakeholder alignment early: Engage finance, IT, and operations from the design stage, not after go-live.

• Adopt agile and phased execution: Don’t wait for the perfect solution, launch minimum viable systems and evolve.

At Atul, this approach helped us roll out TMS and iSourcing in phases, demonstrate early ROI, and build momentum for scale. The result is a supply chain that is not just automated—but adaptive, intelligent, and resilient.