8x to 12x
Faster daily and weekly planning
600bps
Increase in service levels
95%+
User acceptance rates
6 Months
Test and learn period
Unilever is a British multinational consumer goods company. It spans over 190 countries, employs 127,000 people, and sells brands used by over 3.4 billion people daily. Its supply chain data sat in silos with low accessibility and inconsistency, planning and reporting leaned heavily on Excel-like manual systems, and alignment among the supply chain functions was limited.
So Unilever partnered with Solvoyo to run autonomous planning and supply chain analytics on a single platform. Measured 6 months after go-live, daily and weekly planning runs 8x to 12x faster with higher predictability, service levels are up 600bps, and user acceptance rates are 95%+.
Data Silos and Excel-Like Manual Planning Limited Alignment Across Supply Chain Functions
Unilever’s supply chain planning ran on disconnected data and manual tools.
The challenges were:
- Low accessibility and inconsistency of data between silos
- A lack of actionable insights because the sources were disconnected
- Heavy reliance on Excel-like manual systems for planning and reporting
- Limited alignment among different supply chain functions
Unilever had four goals: data integration across its ERP and data warehouse systems; real-time visibility of transactional data, planning inputs, and KPI metrics; cross-functional visibility to improve planning outputs; and an automated decision-making platform to manage its supply chain operations.
Solvoyo Put Unilever’s Planning Data and Decisions on One Autonomous Planning Platform
Solvoyo gathered internal and external data on a single platform. Transactional data, planning inputs, and KPI metrics are visible in real time, and all stakeholders in the supply chain get corporate visibility and clarity.
Plans that need low to no-touch planning are executed immediately. Planning is also aligned horizontally across functions, so decisions weigh accurate trade-offs among revenue, profit, and cost.
The 6-month test and learn had a quick impact on business results. Short and mid-term visibility now supports investment decisions such as increasing production or storage capacity.
Planning 8x to 12x Faster, Service Levels Up 600bps, and 95%+ User Acceptance Rates
Daily and weekly planning at Unilever runs 8x to 12x faster with higher predictability. The platform gives real-time visibility and agility for faster decision-making.
Also measured 6 months after go-live:
- 600bps increase in service levels
- 420bps increase in forecast accuracy
- 95%+ user acceptance rates
- 500bps decrease in transportation costs
- 410bps decrease in inventory overstock level
What Does This Mean for You?
Six months after go-live, Unilever plans 8x to 12x faster, with its data gathered on one platform and low to no-touch plans executed immediately.
If your consumer packaged goods planning still runs on Excel-like manual systems and data that differs from one silo to the next, that is the position Unilever started from.
About Company
Unilever is a British multinational consumer goods company that spans over 190 countries and employs 127,000 people. Its brands, including Dove, Ben & Jerry’s, and Lifebuoy, are used by over 3.4 billion people daily.
Achievements
8x to 12x faster daily and weekly planning with higher predictability
600bps increase in service levels
420bps increase in forecast accuracy
95%+ user acceptance rates
500bps decrease in transportation costs
410bps decrease in inventory overstock level
Don’t take our word for it
80% of IT tools investment fails if the partners don’t strive to continuously improve and adapt. That is what sets our partnership with Solvoyo apart.
With Solvoyo, we eliminated spreadsheets from the process and simultaneously increased process speed and planner efficiency across all regions.
We see rapid changes in demand, and when the inventory is short, we adjust our production plans accordingly. The adjustment requires a lot of manual work, causing suboptimal plans and inefficiencies on the production site. With Solvoyo’s optimized plans, not only do we make easy and smart decisions but also respond to any rapid change at the speed of the market.
Demand planning is both art and science. Until we collaborated with Solvoyo, we managed our demand planning process as a form of art, relying only on individual intuition backed up by the primitive science of spreadsheets. Now, we are finally in a position to make real-time decisions fed by all sorts of data.
