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The ISO 9001:2000 standard, established by DNV, the Netherlands based certifying agency, is a quality management standard that establishes an international benchmark and standard for logistics and supply chain process within the company and ensures that the practices, systems and procedures followed by the company in the above function follow defined systems and practices, thus facilitating rapid growth.

To get the ISO 9001:2000 Certification, Pantaloons had to meet rigorous standards in designing the supply chain across the country, reducing lead time of delivery, resource & product management and a strict measurement parameter. The ISO 9001:2000 certification recognizes the company's supply chain & logistics functions, critical design practices, committed management focus and universal application of the quality standards across the company's locations, stores, warehouses and vendors.

The initiative began in January 2004 and each and every process was scanned and major re-engineering or elimination of non-value added steps were undertaken. The Supply Chain forms the backbone for the activities along the value chain and currently handles approximately half a million units per day across the country with the quantum likely to increase to three million transactions and two million pieces per day respectively in the next two years. Today, all the SCM activities such as Supplier Relationship Management, Quality Assurance, Logistics and Warehousing and the Central Procurement Cell are geared to work as per the best global standards which the ISO 9001:2000 certificate mandates and deliver the highest customer value with increased efficiency.

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* Contributed by -
Manasi Panigrahi,
Pursuing MBA, Batch of 2006,
ICFAI Business School, Hyderabad.