Watch: JSW Cement CEO on how digitization is driving logistics, energy efficiency

Earlier this month, JSW Cement announced its partnership  with San Francisco based AI (artificial intelligence) solutions provider YaloChat to digitize its sales and marketing functions.

Yalochat will provide the Mumbai based cement giant with AI based business tools, such as service on messaging platforms like WhatsApp, for better upsell and transactions. 

The latest partnership is one among the many digital interventions that the company has undertaken over the past couple of years. The management’s primary focus is to create digital solutions to improve logistics and the energy consumption patterns of the company. 

Conglomerate JSW Group forayed into the cement market in 2009. The company currently produces 14 metric tons of cement on an annual basis and announced in November 2019 that it plans to increase the capacity to 25 MTPA BY 2025. 

In an interview with TechCircle, Nilesh Narwekar, CEO, JSW Cement, spoke about how digitization has improved logistics within the company, made frontline sales managers more effective as well as helped improve traceability within the organisation.

Through the implementation of the Saathi app, the company, which is a major player in the environmentally friendly cement space, was able to streamline the operational efficiency of its dealers, and now plans more technology implementations to differentiate from its competitors. 

Narwekar holds a masters' degree in management from Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies, Mumbai and a bachelor's degree in Electronics and Communications engineering from NIT, Calicut. In his previous roles, he was associated with Strategy (formerly Booz & Co.), Accenture, Procter & Gamble and Wipro Lighting, according to JSW Cement website.

Narwekar expects to implement IoT (Internet of Things) and multiple AI based case studies to give the company an edge over its peers.  

The CEO also spoke about how technology helps the company they work together with JSW Steel to produce green cement, which is produced by using slag from the JSW steel plants.