Analysis of Unilever's Logistics and Supply Chain Management

This report delves into the logistics and supply chain management practices of Unilever, focusing on the effectiveness and efficiency of its operations. It examines strategic logistics orientation, process change management, and internal/external integration as key factors in enhancing competitiveness. The report also explores the relationship between e-commerce and e-business, highlighting the benefits of recent advancements for organizations like Unilever, including direct customer access, innovation opportunities, and improved efficiencies. Furthermore, it evaluates best practices in supply chain management, such as increasing inventory velocity, fostering internal and external collaboration, and leveraging technology, providing a comprehensive analysis of Unilever's approach to optimize its supply chain and achieve its business objectives.

LOGISTICS AND
SUPPLY CHAIN
MANAGEMENT

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
WHAT IS LOGISTICS MANAGEMENT?....................................................................................1
TASK A...........................................................................................................................................2
Analysing the effectiveness and efficiency of logistic management that help in increasing the
competency of organisation.........................................................................................................2
TASK B...........................................................................................................................................4
Relationship between e-commerce and e-business and benefits to the organisation form the
development recently taken place in e-business..........................................................................4
TASK C...........................................................................................................................................5
Evaluation of range of Best practices and their implementation in particular organisation........5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
Generally logistics refers to the work performed within an organisation and on the other
hand supply chain refers to the large network of companies which tends to work together and
coordinate their working for the efficient delivery of the product. Along with this, logistics tends
to focus its attention on certain activities such as distribution, procurement, maintenance and
inventory management. And in addition to these activities supply chain management tends to
perform some more activities such as marketing, finance, customer service and development of
new product (Dekker and et.al., 2013).
The proper understanding regarding logistic is that, it is all about providing the customer
with right product, in the mentioned quantity, in the appropriate condition at the right place on
proper time and at the correct cost. In earlier days the work of logistics was taken under different
department but nowadays the complete task is done under logistics department and have
following logistics head: customer service, purchasing, production planning, warehouse and
transport.
WHAT IS LOGISTICS MANAGEMENT?
It deals with the effective and efficient management of routine activities that aid in
production of companies finished goods and services. Generally there are two types of logistics
inbound and outbound logistics. Inbound logistics generally refers to movement of goods and
raw material form supplier to particular company. And on the other hand the outbound logistics
generally refers to finished goods from particular company to the customers (Jacobs and Chase,
2013).
In this whole procedure purchasing and the warehouse department communicate with
suppliers and this function is known as supplier facing function. Production planning and the
inventory control function act as the centre point of the whole processing. And finally the
customer service and transport department communicate with customers and this is also known
as customer facing functions.
This particular report is regarding logistic and supply chain management in Unilever, UK.
This particular assignment will include information regarding effectiveness and efficiency of the
logistic department of this particular organisation and changes that can be done in order to
increase the competitiveness of the organisation. Along with this, assignment will also highlight
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the relation between e-business and e-commerce and recent development in these technologies
and effect of implication of best practices.
TASK A
Analysing the effectiveness and efficiency of logistic management that help in increasing the
competency of organisation
It is well known that efficient management is the key to success especially in the case of
logistic management. There are various methods that can be applied by Unilever in order to
increase the efficiency and effectiveness of their organisation. Here are certain key features of
effective and efficient logistic management that can increase the competitiveness of Unilever:
 Efficient Strategic Logistic Orientation: Presence of highly efficient strategic logistic
orientation, provides Unilever with capability to perform the specific strategic planning
(Bosona and Gebresenbet, 2013). Involvement of this orientation helps Unilever to
overcome the uncertainty that can be encountered in certain global operations with the
provision of skills such as flexibility and dependability. These two key features are of
highest requirement in manufacturing firms with competitive global strategies. Thus
logistics is involved in the strategic planning in order to increase the competitiveness of
firm in current market scenario.
 Managing the process change: The second important quality of effective and efficient
logistic system is the ability to manage process change. In order to make the transition
from cost driven and reactive function to the proactive and customer oriented function
requires strong emphasis on process change. The major objective regarding application of
this service is: there is need of the manufacturing organisation to increase their ability in
order to provide the genuine customer services and manufacturers have sought to
standardise and simplify the logistics process. Thus due to the application of management
process the routine logistics operations have become more simplified (Fawcett, Ellram
and Ogden, 2013).
 Increase in internal and external integration: By the integration of value added
activities and services in logistic organisation and in the complete process of supply chain
provides with outcome that is necessary for the process change. The first element of
integration includes mechanism that is essential for the appropriate integration. It depicts
the amount of consistency that is present in between interdepartmental operation goals.
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Thus there is need of consistency among goals in order to coordinate the activities of
different department.
 Process change and integration: To increase the competitiveness of Unilever, there is
need of right strategic orientation, promote the internal and external integration and
application of continuous process renewal there is need two important facilitators. These
facilitators are logistics information system and performance measurement. These
important key factors are important as their major role is to coordinate the particular
mechanism that links both process change to firm ad channel integration (Schönsleben,
2016). The performance measurement aspect helps Unilever to increase the
competitiveness by providing information related to insight of the firm to have proper
understanding regarding logistics system. It also influences the behaviour in complete
system of logistics long with this it also provide efficient information regarding results
obtained through logistic system. Thus it can be inferred that performance measurement
helps in both designing the logistic strategy along with the monitoring the
implementation of this strategy.
 Achieving the logistic performance: The major objective of integration, restructuring
and investment in logistic system information and performance measurement is to
enhance the logistics performance of the firm which will help in increasing the
competency (Zhang and et.al., 2013). It was found that logistic performance play a major
role in strategic logistic model and the two common dimension of logistic performance is
customer service and inventory performance. By the appropriate application of these
dimensions, inventory level have been reduces, inventory turnover have been increased
and customer services have been improved. Thus this advancement in the logistic
capability encourages manufacturer to effectively respond to needs of special customer
and provide them with best available services.
These are the features of efficient and effective logistic systems that help in increasing the
competitiveness of Unilever
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TASK B
Relationship between e-commerce and e-business and benefits to the organisation form the
development recently taken place in e-business
In order to increase the profitability and productivity of the business the most valuable tool
that is available in present day is e-business. Basically any kind of business that is conducted by
making use of computer and other electronic devices is known as e-business. And this type of
business is generally internet based and is highly cost effective business type. All features of
current ongoing traditional business can be carried out by using the e-business accept buying and
selling. One of the best example of e-business is online chatting to provide technical and
customer support. On the other hand electronic commerce also play an important role in global
development approaches in order to beat new growth opportunities (Johnson, 2014). E-
commerce tends to provide new opportunities for smoothing the business process worldwide and
across different nations and provide effective base for the growth of many industries. Along with
this e-commerce also helps in performing the authentic and scientific analysis of various aspects
related to business and create a positive impact on business in very short period of time.
Electronic commerce generally includes selling, distributing, marketing and buying of
various type of services and goods through the help of electronic system called internet. In order
to put commercial transaction in to practice such as Electronic Fund Transfer (EFT), Automated
Inventory Management (AIM) systems are in prime need by electronic commerce in order to
deal with data that is involved in carrying out the e-commerce (Hu and Sheu, 2013). There is
need of Enterprise Information System (EIS) for the proper management of electronic commerce
and provides with overall control structure in order to manage all the transaction data within a
single enterprise and across different enterprise such as supplier and costumers.
There is a strong relationship between both technologies e-commerce and e-business.
The electronic commerce is broadly related to electronic business along with this it is also
considered that e-commerce is a subset of e-business. The organisation such as Unilever is
highly benefited from the recent advancement in e-commerce/e-business in following terms: Direct access to customers: The technological advancement in e-commerce provides
higher profit margins along with perks of interacting with customers which help the
manufacturers to learn much information related to certain tuning up work required in
products.
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 Opportunities to innovate: By making customers outside from existing chain helps in
integrating the new idea into the product by allowing the concept of product analysis. More prospects: Larger arena tends to increase the sales possibilities. There may be
certain potential problems while offering the product to different market but there is need
to increase the competence in current network. Scalability: Because of many advancements in e-commerce it application in
manufacturing will help the organisation to grow and scale up the productions in order to
meet the increasing demands of market and customers by opening the new sales channel
(Christopher, 2016). Improved efficiencies: By the integration of Unilever with Enterprise Resource Planning
and other available back-end business systems, e-commerce tends to provide with
efficiencies for manufacturing of goods. Along with this, customers are able to order
online whatever required by them and customer services focuses on several available
customer service functions such as timely shipping and trans[aren’t shipping cost by not
only being the order taker. E-commerce also tends to eliminate the possibilities that result
in errors along with increasing throughput orders. Analytics: With the application of e-commerce in various manufacturing organisations
opens a door for launching the comprehensive analytical campaign. By the application of
e-commerce various distributors and manufacturers can keep a track record of their
measured ales effectiveness, inventory turns, customer sales, product mix along with
customer engagement (Armstrong and et.al., 2015). Improved brand awareness: Along with the finding new customers e-commerce also
help industrial distributor and manufacturer such as Unilever with opportunity to improve
their brand awareness in the current market place.
TASK C
Evaluation of range of Best practices and their implementation in particular organisation
The major aim of firms is complete and accurate delivery of products on appropriate time
and this system is to be managed properly as reliability is the hall work of best working supply
chains. Thus these firms are well aware regarding Best practices to effectively manage the
logistics and supply chains. Following are the best practices used by firms: Implementation of
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logistics, compress cycle time, utilize meaningful matrix, improve supplier performance and
increase the inventory velocity. The three best practices applied by Unilever are:
 Increase in inventory velocity: There is need of inventory to move fast in order to make
high turnover. It should flow from manufacturing sites or supplier to customers. Along
with this becoming poorer from cash side and rich in inventory is not considered to be the
good approach. There should be availability of limited amount of products in warehouses.
 Collaborate internally and externally: On the internal basis everyone should be focused
on same goal. Effective communication among workers in organisation will aid in
making quicker and more accurate decisions regarding logistics management. Along with
this it also help in mitigating the supply chain disruptions. In external collaboration
different companies share information and technology if their supply chain are dependent
on each other (Dima, Ţenescu and Bosun, 2014).
 Make technology work for you: there are many organisations and companies which
select software’s in which they structure their workflow and processes in order to make
them more efficient. Initially they review the process which need improvement and then
select the technologies that is best suited for them.
CONCLUSION
From the above report it can be concluded that logistic management play an important role
in effective and efficient management of routine activities that aid in production of companies
finished goods and services. Along with this it was also found that Unilever have various
efficiency and effectiveness in logistic management that help in increasing the competitiveness
in market. It was also found that there is an effective relationship between e-commerce and e-
business that help Unilever by providing the benefits in various aspects. E-commerce and e-
business provide many opportunities to Unilever like increasing the chances for innovation of
new products and provide direct interface with customers.
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REFERENCES
Books and journals
Armstrong, G. and et.al., 2015. Marketing: an introduction. Pearson Education.
Bosona, T. and Gebresenbet, G., 2013. Food traceability as an integral part of logistics
management in food and agricultural supply chain. Food control, 33(1), pp.32-48.
Christopher, M., 2016. Logistics & supply chain management. Pearson UK.
Dekker, R. and et.al., 2013. Reverse logistics: quantitative models for closed-loop supply chains.
Springer Science & Business Media.
Dima, I. C., Ţenescu, A. and Bosun, P., 2014. Informational stocks and e-logistics management
of a tourism company. International Letters of Social and Humanistic Sciences. 16(1).
pp.75-85.
Fawcett, S. E., Ellram, L. M. and Ogden, J. A., 2013. Supply Chain Management: Pearson New
International Edition: From Vision to Implementation. Pearson Higher Ed.
Hu, Z. H. and Sheu, J. B., 2013. Post-disaster debris reverse logistics management under
psychological cost minimization. Transportation Research Part B: Methodological. 55.
pp.118-141.
Jacobs, R. and Chase, R., 2013. Operations and supply chain management. McGraw-Hill Higher
Education.
Johnson, P. F., 2014. Purchasing and supply management. McGraw-Hill Higher Education.
Schönsleben, P., 2016. Integral logistics management: operations and supply chain management
within and across companies. CRC Press.
Zhang, X. and et.al., 2013. Route selection for emergency logistics management: A bio-inspired
algorithm. Safety science. 54. pp.87-91.
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