ture’s value. “We invited many of our customers to the
warehouse and explained the advantages,” he recalls.
“This was received well by the retailers, and in my opin-
ion was a very good example of how the supply chain
can contribute to sales.”
With the backing of their customers, the two compa-
nies began their joint distribution initiative later that
year. Both Kimberly-Clark and Lever Fabergé processed
their own customer orders and then relayed that infor-
mation to Hays Logistics. The third-party logistics
company then used that information to pull both com-
panies’ products from the warehouse and ship full
truckloads.
LAYER PICKING BRINGS LABOR SAVINGS
Today the original partners continue to collaborate in
the Netherlands, where they have
127 shared customers. Kimberly-Clark and Unilever make 80 percent of their deliveries in the
Netherlands through this shared
supply chain, and shared deliveries account for 93 percent of
Kimberly-Clark’s sales volume in
that country.
When the program got under
way, each truckload would be
split fairly evenly between
Kimberly-Clark’s and Unilever’s
goods. Today, because other
manufacturers are also using the distribution center,
Kimberly-Clark’s products sometimes comprise only
one-third of the truckload. “Kuehne & Nagel have other
customers in the same distribution network, so we can
be a little more flexible,” says Surtees.
In addition to the benefits Kimberly-Clark and its
customers realized from the beginning—more frequent
replenishment without increased transportation costs,
lower store inventory costs, and fewer out-of-stocks—
the manufacturer has also achieved a significant reduction in handling costs in the distribution center. That
reduction came about in large part because Hays invested in material handling automation to expedite handling and save on labor.
Both Kimberly-Clark’s and Unilever’s customers want
to receive mixed-case pallets, but assembling them is
time-consuming, labor-intensive, and costly. To speed
up that process at the Raamsdonksveer distribution
center, Hays invested in layer-picker equipment, which
was furnished by Univeyor, according to Anthonissen.
This type of equipment uses vacuum suction to lift a
layer of cases from a pallet and transfer those boxes to
another pallet. Switching from a manual process to an
automated one produced notable savings. “By combining the two [companies’] volumes, we were able to automate to take out 16 percent of the handling costs,”
Surtees says.
TRUST AND RAPPORT
After the Netherlands operation had validated the con-
cept of a shared supply chain, it was a few years before
Kimberly-Clark replicated its success elsewhere in
Europe. The main reason the company waited so long
was that it wanted to be careful about choosing another
manufacturer to partner with. “We talked to other com-
panies in the United Kingdom,
Spain, and Italy … and it took us
a long time to find the right part-
ner,” Surtees says. “The right
partner is not just somebody
with the right volumes. It’s also [a
matter of] finding a company
with the right culture—some-
body you can work with, some-
body you actually trust. This is a
bit like getting married in some
respects.”
Finally, in 2006, Kimberly-
Clark began collaborating with
the cereal manufacturer Kellogg Company in some
parts of England and Scotland. Kimberly-Clark believed
that Kellogg was a good match, and that the two had the
right “trust and rapport,” Surtees says.
Kimberly-Clark operates distribution centers in the
north and south of England, while Kellogg manufactures in the north. In a test run, Kellogg started shipping
to a Kimberly-Clark distribution facility located in
Northfleet, which is east of London. There, Kellogg’s
products were cross-docked and mixed in with
Kimberly-Clark’s goods, and both company’s products
were then loaded onto a truck for delivery to small customers in London and southeastern England.
That trial worked so well that it has become a permanent arrangement, and Kellogg now reciprocates for
Kimberly-Clark’s deliveries north of the city of
Birmingham, located in the center of the country.
Kimberly-Clark stores its products in Kellogg’s distribution center in Trafford Park, near Manchester. Just as in
