strategicinsight
BY JAMES A. COOKE, EDITOR AT LARGE
Sharing supply chains
for mutual gain
This story first appeared in the
Quarter 2/2011 edition of CSCMP’s
Supply Chain Quarterly, a journal
of thought leadership for the supply chain management profession
and a sister publication to AGiLE
Business Media’s DC VELOCITY.
Readers can obtain a subscription
by joining the Council of Supply
Chain Management Professionals
(whose membership dues include
the Quarterly’s subscription fee).
Subscriptions are also available to
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(print) or $34.95 (digital).
For more information, visit
www.SupplyChainQuarterly.com.
Kimberly-Clark helped to pioneer the concept of collaborative
supply chains. The benefits have been so great that the practice is now sweeping through Europe.
NINE YEARS AGO, WHEN KIMBERLY-CLARK CORP. LAUNCHED A COLLABorative distribution trial with Lever Fabergé (now Unilever’s Home and Personal
Care unit) in the Netherlands, company managers had no idea that they were trailblazing what would become a supply chain best practice in Europe. In that first
experiment, the two companies made joint deliveries to customers, with each company filling half of each truck.
With that early effort, Kimberly-Clark pioneered the concept of collaborative distribution, also known as shared or collaborative supply chains, a practice that is
now sweeping Europe. In a shared supply chain, two or more companies use the
same distribution facility and transportation services to serve mutual customers.
This practice reduces costs for manufacturers and provides more frequent replenishment for retailers.
Kimberly-Clark’s venture with Lever Fabergé in the Netherlands encouraged
other companies to take the plunge into shared distribution. “It was the starting
point for what is now known as collaborative supply
chains in Europe,” says Peter Surtees, Kimberly-Clark’s director of supply chain for Europe.
“Collaboration now is a big thing in Europe,
especially for CPGs (consumer packaged
goods companies).” The concept of shared supply chains has proved so attractive, in fact, that
a nonprofit organization has been formed in
Europe to foster such collaboration among
other CPG companies, retailers, and third-party logistics companies.
For Kimberly-Clark, its positive experience with collaborative distribution in
the Netherlands prompted the consumer goods giant to extend that
program to additional
countries and business partners.
Here is a
