Unilever Increases Productivity And Customer Satisfaction
Client Challenge
Unilever's distribution costs were running high and they wanted to develop a repeatable process through the distribution network to increase productivity and increase customer satisfaction by decreasing cost to reduce risk.
Solution
Over the past 15 years GENCO has maintained a relationship with Unilever and during that time we have been able to decrease their cost per case and increase their case per hour throughout all of 7 distribution centers that we manage. We also have been able to increase their case fill and reduce order to delivery time.
Overview What GENCO Does For Unilever
GENCO is very familiar with network distribution initiatives posed by our customers. Year 2001 marked the beginning of Unilever's strategic initiative to enhance customer service and support continued growth through expansion using a distribution network concept throughout the United States.
Unilever selected GENCO to operate three of their five one million sq. ft. network DC's which are scheduled to open sporadically over a two years period. The first of the Network DC's opened in April 2002 in Palmetto, Georgia. GENCO has operated this facility since January 1999 and in October 2001; groundbreaking began as this facility grew from 600,000 to 1.1 million square feet of space. As a part of the network initiative, GENCO was also chosen as Unilever's sole provider of Reverse Logistics services. Unilever HPC has awarded GENCO the contracts to operate two distribution centers one in the Midwest located in Pontoon, IL the facility is 1.3 million square feet and one in Dallas, TX the facility is 440,000 square feet.
Implementation Date of the First Unilever (Chesebrough-Ponds) DC: 1989
Groundbreaking for the first network DC began in October 2001 to expand this site from 600,000 to 1.1 MM square feet of warehouse space. GENCO has operated this Atlanta, GA facility since January 1999. The facility should be fully operational in the 2nd quarter of 2002.
Annual Shipping Volume for all 6 DC's (2001): 158,671,318 cases/year
Annual Shipping Volume for the RC (2001): 9,565,313 unit's processes
Atlanta DC Annual Shipping Volume (2001): 36,000,000
Atlanta DC Average Daily Volume (2001): 144,000 cases/day
Teammates: 192
EDI is not utilized at the facility level. System is DLx (formerly DM+) in Palmetto and AS400 at all other sites.
Results
Over the past 15 years, GENCO has been able to provide Unilever with a building project management, start-up management, system integration, system testing, system set-up, all hiring, personal recruiting and training, safety programs (core excellence audits & benefits administration), facility layout and design resources. The development of repeatable processes throughout the 7 distribution centers that GENCO operates have been able to lower cost per case each year out of the 15 year relationship between GENCO and Unilever and continue to increase in cases per hour.