January 2010
Everyday Amul collects 8.4 million litres of milk(daily average 2008-2009) from 13,328 village societies consisting of 2.79 million Producer Members. Its supply chain is easily one of the most complicated in the world. How to managers at Amul prevent the milk from souring?

Amul Dairy has transformed the milk collection process for millions of small farmers by using an automatic, computerized collection system which reduces the time for weighing, quality testing and payment processing from a few hours with payment days later, to five minutes and immediate payment. Each day, milk is collected no more than 10 miles from the farmer, with this nationwide, decentralized, collection process.

This paper discusses how a Global Positioning System (GPS) and a geographic information system (GIS) based DSS allows Amul Dairy to plan & monitor milk collection to optimize the collection process.

Drawbacks of the Milk Collection Process before the installation of GPSTracking
Milk collection at the designated centers takes place twice daily, at 6am and at 5.30pm. An Amul tanker arrives at the villages at around 10am to gather milk collected that morning and the previous evening. This tanker takes the stock to the Amul factory in Anand for pasteurization. Under the old scenario:


• No system was available to pinpoint the location of tankers during the collection process except by phone calls to driver. This system was flawed due to poor telephone networks in rural areas and it depended on the word of the driver.
• There was no way to monitor movement of tankers in real-time
• There was no system to monitor arrival - departure times at milk collection centers
• There was no system to audit the late arrivals of tankers, or to analyze the best routes to take.

Scenario at Amul Dairy after the Installation of Tracker...
The SilverStar GPS Tracking Solution installed on all the milk collection tankers uses satellite technology combined with Google™ Maps API Premier to provide real-time locations and record historical vehicle activity. The SilverStar GPS Fleet Management System is the most user-friendly GPS tracking system in the fleet management industry - giving fleet managers at Amul the control they need over the tankers with the click of a button.


• The fleet manager can deploy the tankers with greater speed and efficiency and accurately predict arrival times or delays.
• Location Report, Daily Report and Hours Worked Report give control over routes and collections.
• Detailed real time vehicle tracking that provides accurate start and stop times as well as records idling and extended stops.
• Constant real-time GPS analysis shows managers at a glance where their tankers are at all times so managers can reduce cell phone calls to drivers and let them focus on the job.
• Managers can select and view one problematic tanker, or their entire fleet, or see if the tanker is moving at the optimum speed, or see if it is idling, and of course pin-point its exact location.
• Managers can map the shortest route and ensure that the tankers stay on its predetermined route - thus saving fuel and cutting carbon emissions.
• Managers can monitor all unauthorized stops that the driver makes and can view the duration of the stops.
• Mangers generate collection reports for each tanker and transporter to monitor their overall collection performance.

Benefit to Farmers & Amul

• The on-time performance of tankers increase - thus cutting down delays that could lead to the souring of milk.
• In case of an emergency situation, the managers have information on the exact scenario and can take appropriate actions.
• In case of calls from societies and farmers the managers can easily locate tankers and predict ETA(estimated time of arrival).
• Chances of milk adulteration reduced due to elimination of unauthorized stoppages or idling.
• Improvement of safety standards as over-speeding eliminated