Buying Agents Association (BAA), one of the most respected organisations in the Indian buying community, has been continuously motivating its members to use technology to its maximum.
In this series, BAA organised a webinar today that focused on virtual inspection. Sarath Chandran, Director, RSJ Inspection Service, Noida shared a detailed presentation in this regard.
While presenting on the same, he said that though there are some reservations regarding virtual inspection, it is not difficult and ensuring quality is very much possible through virtual inspection.
He suggested that those who have not gone for virtual inspection so far should start with a pilot project. Virtual inspection has a potential similar to work from home, but since it requires lot of energy and patience, a strong commitment is required for this.
However, he quickly added that as the probability of failure is high, the pilot project should start with a simple product category.
Importantly, the benefits cannot be overlooked! In addition to reporting immediately from wherever you are, which saves both time and cost, eco-friendliness and the advantage of multiple locations are some of the highlights of virtual inspection.
“Yes, there are many apprehensions regarding virtual inspections like colour/hand feel, malpractices by the factory when the camera is out of focus or not available but with mutual cooperation it can be done easily,” said Sarath.
As far as technology requirement for virtual inspection is concerned, live steaming videos (3 HD Camera required) and audio facility with recording capability, real-time picture/video capture and upload facility are a must. Internal cloud-based ERP system is a better solution to maintain confidential information.
And how much is the manpower required? One factory QC, a factory cameraman, 2 people of remote quality team and an observer team consisting of 2 to 4 people (especially in the pilot project).
Many leading buying agents and buying houses’ top management participated in the webinar. Tanya Bhatia and Anchal Kansal of BAA moderated the session. BAA has also created a common platform where all vendors can share their stock’s detail so that buying agents have a better idea about available stock, which will further help all stakeholders of the industry.
