Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
system of Unilever
Acknowledgement
It is our concession to thank .................., Senior lecturer of Department of Business
Administration, ............... University for rendering us her expertise knowledge and giving the opportunity
of practical experiences through this term paper.
Practical Knowledge is fundamental for the application of theoretical intelligence. Being this in mind the
course teacher assigned to prepare this assignment to the students of the course “Enterprise Information
System”. We cordially thank the honorable teacher to provide us the opportunity to apply class room
learning practice. This term paper bridges the gap between them.
We also convey our deep gratitude to those people who have helped us to collect this information and
supported us.
Letter of Transmittal
Date ....................
....................University
Dear Madam,
With the due respect it is our pleasure to present the term paper on “Supply chain management system”.
While preparing the report we have tried our level best to focus closely on the topic and try to collect most
complete and updated information available. We believe that it will provide a clear idea about Supply
chain management system of an organization.
To prepare this term paper, we have given best effort to accumulate needed information.
We will be available to answer any question for clarification. Thank you for your sincere support.
Sincerely yours,
On behalf of the group
......................................
Executive summary
Bangladesh Unilever Ltd. Unilever is a multinational company. They have been a major player in
Bangladesh FMCG market with its strong brands like Kisaan, Knorr, Quality walls, Brook bond, Lipton,
Bru etc. in Food & beverages division; Wheel, Rin, Surf Excel, Lifebuoy, Dove, Sunsilk etc in Home &
Personal care division.
Institutional Business as this market is termed has Nestle and RAK ceramic Diversy as the major players
in beverages and home care categories respectively for the last few decades, HUL has entered in this
market segment in the last two years and is expected to gain a good market share down the line in next
few decades.
We mainly focus on how does the company maintain its supply chain through using an supply chain
management, how the company’s applications are electronically integrated with back office information
system and database to share inventory data it’s selling partners, how the firm maintain its Information
Technology and abrupt change in organization structure and supply chain, and how the firm handle the
relationship with it upstream and downstream partners. After all our main focus was around the supply
chain management of the company.
Chapter- 01
Introduction
1.1 Introduction
Unilever Bangladesh is a company that has its own history intrinsically built with the development of our
nation and our culture. It has been part of the Bangladeshi household since the 19th century with the
same intention of bringing cleanliness and convenience to households as we do today. Back then
Sunlight soap was marketed through Lever Brothers India limited throughout the undivided India. Later
on, Lever Brothers Pakistan limited started its operation in Bangladesh on a larger scale. In 1964, our
soap manufacturing facility was setup in Kalurghat, Chittagong.
With time it gradually evolved and diversified into manufacturing personal products like skin care creams,
toothpastes, shampoos, detergent powders, and so on. Accumulating manufacturing experience over 40
years, we have a legacy of leading the market with international brands offered at affordable prices.
Today, with 13 different brands in 8 different categories, Unilever Bangladesh stands as one of the most
progressive partner in development for the Government of Bangladesh.
The study has been conducted to understand the detail study of all the aspects of retailing concerned with the HUL’s
vending machine. The specific objective, which under taken in my study, is to understand the corporate sale, the
competitive brands of HUL’s vending machine and walk through the product sale in corporate world which reflect
my own personal views and measures even the nearby areas with hidden opportunity.
1.3 Methodology
A variety of research methods were employed to fully capture the performance of Unilever and Square of their
sustainable agriculture practice. Unilever was used as an in-depth case study for the thesis. Given the nature of the
data made available from Unilever’s suppliers, both qualitative and quantitative assessments were carried out.
Descriptive statistical techniques were used to carry out a quality assessment of the data. Furthermore interviews
were also carried out with key persons in the relevant departments in Unilever, and the businesses that they are
working in collaboration with to design the latest version of their Sustainable Agriculture self-assessment (version
2.0).
Combining current literature on sustainable agriculture indicators from academia and industry, with the
qualitative and quantitative data assessment carried out on the results from Unilever’s and Square self-
assessment tool provides an effective means of determining the strength of Unilever’s and Square
metrics. Moreover the qualitative information gathered from conversations and interviews provided a
deeper insight into the various issues the food sector faces in understanding and answering key
sustainability concerns.
This research is prepared both with primary data and secondary data.
Data Collection
Both primary data and secondary data were collected to organize this report. But the report is basically
emphasized on secondary data.
Primary Data were collected from the informal discussion with the manager of the organization.
Secondary Data was collected from different sources e.g. annual report of the organization, web sites, reports,
prospectus, journals, newspaper etc
Although I have got co-operation from manager of Unilever and Square, the major limitations that the
study faced during the study period are spot lighted below:
As most of the data is collected from secondary sources, there was very little opportunity to analysis data.
Time constraint is one of the problems, for which it has been difficult for us to gather enough knowledge.
Intense Political instability is one of the prominent problem that we face while preparing the term paper.
Chapter- 02
2.1 History
Unilever Bangladesh is a company that has its own history intrinsically built with the development of our
nation and our culture. It has been part of the Bangladeshi household since the 19th century with the
same intention of bringing cleanliness and convenience to households as we do today. Back then
Sunlight soap was marketed through Lever Brothers India limited throughout the undivided India. Later
on, Lever Brothers Pakistan limited started its operation in Bangladesh on a larger scale. In 1964, our
soap manufacturing facility was setup in Kalurghat, Chittagong.
With time it gradually evolved and diversified into manufacturing personal products like skin care creams,
toothpastes, shampoos, detergent powders, and so on. Accumulating manufacturing experience over 40
years, we have a legacy of leading the market with international brands offered at affordable prices.
Today, with 13 different brands in 8 different categories, Unilever Bangladesh stands as one of the most
progressive partner in development for the Government of Bangladesh.
1964-1972
Productions started off with Sunlight soap and Lifebuoy soap. After the war of independence in 1971,
Bangladesh became an independent country. At this time, Lever Brothers Bangladesh Ltd. was
constituted with Unilever owning 60.75% shares and the Government of Bangladesh owning the
remaining 39.25% shares.
1972-1980
Post liberation period evidenced accelerated growth for the company. Demand started rising and the
company continued its mission to meet consumer needs by producing quality soaps, introducing Lux - the
beauty soap and Wheel. Launched in 1972 Wheel entered the merchandised laundry category,
traditionally dominated by cottage soaps. It appealed to the consumers with unique care benefits for hand
and fabric, a generic weakness in cottage soaps. It gradually became the secret ally of Bangladeshi
women by extending the caring hand to ease her daily laundry chores.
1980-1990
The early eighties witnessed expansion of the company through diversification. Calibrating direction, the
mission now included enhancing quality of life through other personal products aspiring aestheticism like
sparkling white teeth, fresh breath, beautiful hair, and glowing skin. A Personal Product Plant was
established to manufacture shampoo, toothpaste, and skin care creams. Sun silk Shampoo, Close-up
Tooth paste, Fair and Lovely for skin care and Vim for dish washing was produced and marketed to bring
great international and regional formulations to Bangladeshi households at affordable prices. 1989
heralded the beginning of a fairy tale story – the initiation of LUX photogenic contest that brought the real
life experience of glamour, fame and fortune to the doorsteps of young girls throughout the country.
1990-1998
In the early 90's Unilever Bangladesh entered the tea-based beverage market introducing Lipton Taaza,
Lever's flagship packet tea brand, with the objective to be the most preferred tea of the Bangladeshi
consumers. World renowned Pond’s cream and Pepsodent – the dental hygiene expert began to be
manufactured from our Kalurghat factory. Washing drudgeries of the busy homemakers were washed
away with the introduction of Wheel washing powder and Surf Excel for premium wash. In 1996-1997, our
manufacturing facility owned and run by a third party was set up outside Dhaka for wheel washing
powder. With formulations suitable for local conditions, the washing powder concept brought about a
huge revolution in fabric washing habits in the country.
1998-2004
These are the golden years in the history of Unilever Bangladesh as the company turned around from
severe losses due to competitive backlash - to a company with 6 years of consecutive growth. Around the
end of November 2001, our new personal products factory “Sankalp” in Kalurghat started production
which helped us meet the market needs from a shift on our dependence on soaps to diverse personal
grooming categories.
This is also the era when Unilever Bangladesh introduced many exciting new products such as Pond’s
face wash to end soap related facial skin woes or Lipton double chamber tea bags for more zest in our
tea cups and the markets responded enthusiastically. In 2001, we brought about a new excitement in the
kitchen care sector with the introduction of Vim bar, the dish cleaning soap – a concept of convenience
and common household habits combined together.
In 2002 Rexona deodorant entered the market building in awareness about body odor problems and
creating a new personal grooming habit in the country. The company’s soap formulations changed
radically during this time to bring in world class standards – without any price rises. Lifebuoy, the health
brand has moved from just the hard-working men’s soap to reminding one, of the bond of love that binds
a family in a healthy circle, free of germs and sickness. In 2004, as a new variant, bringing in the
goodness of Neem – an Ayurvedic medical marvel, Lifebuoy has reinstated its earnest Endeavour to be
ahead of consumer’s needs.
In the span of these six years, we gathered many accolades (link to awards page) to certify our fast paced
move towards world class performance. Unilever Bangladesh had a journey towards adding new impetus
to its trade marketing and today our products are available in 90% of the households in Bangladesh.
In a companywide move to come out from behind the great brands and be known as Unilever worldwide,
Lever Brothers Bangladesh limited officially changed its name to Unilever Bangladesh in December 2004.
To make cleanliness a commonplace; to lessen work for women; to foster health and contribute to
personal attractiveness, in order that life may be more enjoyable and rewarding for the people who use
the products.
2.3 Unilever Mission
Unilever's mission is to add Vitality to life. They meet everyday needs for nutrition; hygiene and personal
care with brands that help people feel good, look good and get more out of life.
We help people feel good, look good and get more out of life with brands and services that are
good for them and good for others.
We will inspire people to take small everyday actions that can add up to a big difference for the
world.
We will develop new ways of doing business that will allow us to double the size of our company
while reducing our environmental impact.
We've always believed in the power of our brands to improve the quality of people’s lives and in doing the
right thing. As our business grows, so do our responsibilities. We recognize that global challenges such
as climate change concern us all. Considering the wider impact of our actions is embedded in our values
and is a fundamental part of who we are.
2.6 Unilever Goals
The goals of UBL are:
Chapter- 03
Product and Manufacture
3.1 Manufacturing
In Bangladesh the company operates in four distinct product categories. These are:
™ Fabric Wash
Household care
Personal care
Foods
Surf Excel
Vim Bar
Vim Liquid
Lifebuoy Total
Dove bar
Lifebuoy Shampoo
Dove shampoo
3.7 Foods
Lipton Taaza Danadar
3.10 Distribution
To distribute their product to the final customer they follow some steps:
They establish a huge marketing channel to distribute their product. There is 700000 outlets which were
grouped into 27 different channels. Among these 27 different channels 9 have been formalized for
development. These channels consist of both urban and rural areas.
Chapter- 04
Manufacturing
Engineering
Company Buying
Distribution
Quality Assurance
Planning
Brand value
Chapter- 05
5.1 Question Analysis
Part A
A. Question no 1: How does your company maintain the supply chain
process?
We maintain our supply chain process by-
Daily production and distribution planning, including all nodes in the supply chain.
Production scheduling for each manufacturing facility in the supply chain (minute by minute).
Demand planning and forecasting, coordinating the demand forecast of all customers and sharing
the forecast with all suppliers.
Sourcing planning, including current inventory and forecast demand, in collaboration with all
suppliers.
Production operations, including the consumption of materials and flow of finished goods.
Outbound operations, including all fulfillment activities, warehousing and transportation to customers.
Strategic network optimization, including the number, location, and size of warehousing, distribution
centers, and facilities.
Strategic partnerships with suppliers, distributors, and customers, creating communication channels
for critical information and operational improvements such as cross docking, direct shipping, and third-
party logistics.
Product
life cycle management, so that new and existing products can be optimally integrated into
the supply chain and capacity management activities.
All order is fed into central database from the distribution center.
Network is installed at all 3500 distributor point-which makes for accurate on- the- fly demand
projection and helps to avoid stock- out loss
Reducing stock of inventory by giving proper information about the market demand.
Informing suppler constantly about the status of inventory stock so that shortage of inventory is not
created.
Providing
knowledge about what consumer wants and thus enables to ensure customer satisfaction
and reduce churn rate.
Based on the information of delivery date, the company deliver product to customer and thus supply
chain information system improve delivery service of the company.
Part-B
B. Question 1: Is your company’s web application electronically
integrated with back office information system and database?
Yes
Our company’s web application electronically integrated with back office information system and
database because of-
The presentation layer interface to the applications need not employ the same architecture as the
applications.
You can use the prebuilt presentation layer delivered with packaged applications.
The business and data logic in an application need not be separate from the delivered presentation
layer.
It
is easy to manage the development and testing environments because asynchronous breakpoints
provide natural testing points.
Our company’s database electronically integrated with upstream and downstream suppliers and partner
for the purpose of –
Warehouse Management;
Transportation and Distribution, Delivery and customer’s delight following the basic principles of
supply chain management viz. working together;
Enhancing revenue;
Cost control;
Customer’s satisfaction.
B. Question 3: Dose your company exchange inventory data with
supplier?
Yes
Our company exchange inventory data with supplier to inform them about the status of inventory stock,
which is analyzed by supplier to predict
In which time the procurement and production of product should be commenced
Information on direct competitors, a company's labor statistics, and information on suppliers, accounting
data and projection of needed resources may all be included in operational data. Data collected on direct
competitors helps marketers make the products seem superior to competing products. Data on customers
helps marketers create consumer profiles that help with everything from product creation, to distribution
and advertising. Labor and accounting data help with internal control of finances and
productivity.
Part-D
D. Question 1: Dose the downstream customer has compatible
system in place to support internet based value chain activities such
as order and f\information system?
Yes
The downstream customers/partners have compatible system in the place to support internet base value
chain activities. The value chain system perform the value chain activities mentioned bellow-
Inbound logistics include the receiving, warehousing, and inventory control of input materials.
Operations are the value-creating activities that transform the inputs into the final product.
Outbound
logistics are the activities required to get the finished product to the customer, including
warehousing, order fulfillment, etc.
Marketing & Sales are those activities associated with getting buyers to purchase the product,
including channel selection, advertising, pricing, etc.
Service activities are those that maintain and enhance the product's value including customer
support, repair services, etc.
Any or all of these primary activities may be vital in developing a competitive advantage. For example,
logistics activities are critical for a provider of distribution services, and service activities may be the key
focus for a firm offering on-site maintenance contracts for office equipment.
The upstream suppliers have much compatible system to get competitive advantages such as-
Identifying the relevant firm-specific activities within the generic value chain;
Part-C
This is the skill that our supply chain manager needs to have to implement information technology
systems. Technology enables our businesses in a supply chain to communicate faster and more
effectively. Most of these technologies involve the use of the internet to allow for an exchange of relevant
information between partners. As such, this technology benefits all of our partners involved by integrating
data from various points in the supply chain, lowering supply chain costs, reducing paper usage (which
saves both time and money), reducing data errors, and improving customer satisfaction by allowing
greater product and delivery customization and shorter cycle times.
Two information technology solutions that are popular among supply chain and logistics managers are
supply chain management (SCM) software and enterprise resource planning (ERP) software. Both of
these software solutions are used in our supply chain management system.
o A supply chain management software solution is one that is designed to automate the planning aspects of
managing the supply chain, the logistics aspects, or both.
The planning aspects of managing a supply chain include: Identifying the most effective transportation
means to ship and deliver the product; analyzing the supply chain in order to identify and eliminate any
process bottlenecks; establishing production means and scheduling.
The execution aspects of managing a supply chain include: Establishing the price and availability of the
product; Mapping out alternate product transportation logistics; ensuring the availability of resources
needed for manufacturing.
Our enterprise resource planning software is designed to integrate various aspects of a company’s
information technology infrastructure together into a cohesive whole. The goal of this integration is to
improve efficiency by allowing broader access to data across a company’s entire information technology
network, and to reduce costs by making disparate software systems unnecessary.
As a supply chain manager, our task will be to fully understand the benefits and disadvantages of both types
of software, and to decide which one will best suit our supply chain needs. Furthermore, we will need to
sell others on the need for our software choice, especially in situations where a preference for established
software is deeply entrenched, or where the benefits of adopting a new software solution are not readily
apparent.
We’ll also have to ensure that the software is sufficiently tested before it is released to our entire supply
chain. Nothing will erode employee and partner confidence in our software choice faster than glitches and
problems that could have been easily spotted and rectified with proper testing.
But before the change in organizational and supply chain structure we the managers understand the
benefits and disadvantages of changing in organizational and supply chain structure, and used to decide
–
“Is that will best suit for our supply chain and organizational needs”.
C. Question 3: Dose the firm have the ability to acquire expertise for
managing internet based supply chain ability?
Yes
The firm has the expertise for managing internet based supply chain ability. Mention worthy expertise’s
are-
reducing much of the demand uncertainty that arises in the supply chain process
Providing knowledge about how to make use of the data available in order to determine how long
each part of the supply chain takes to accomplish its function.
Chapter- 06
6.1 Conclusion
Unilever Bangladesh limited is one of the leading multinational companies in Bangladesh. We had the
opportunity to analysis on this company’s overall supply chain management. After extensive effort we get
informative result about
The information technology used by the supply chain management of the company. Which serve the both
inside and outside partners of the company.
Unilever’s upstream suppliers have much compatible system to get competitive advantages.
The firm has the expertise for managing internet based supply chain ability.
The company has updated IT and creative management system and team.
The Unilever’s downstream customers/partners have compatible system in the place to support internet
base value chain activities.
After all we can draw conclusion by commenting that the company can improve its performance by using
updated supply chain channel and management.
6.2 Recommendation
Margin to distributors is low. Company should focus in this direction to pass on more benefit to the
distributors. If margins are increased from 4.76%, distributors will be more motivated.
The company can enable to increase its profit merging to 20.5% up then before by providing the best
customer support, following customer driven business process.
In order to compete with local and cheaper brands, company should come up with competitive
products that can cater institutes more effectively and efficiently with a basic Focus on pricing
strategy.
When we visited Unilever we observed that the total environment of these company wonderful in a word.
The manager is so friendly and cooperative to others. The clear idea of this topic of him attracts us very
much.
6.3 Reference
Md. Rabiul Hossain (Asst-Manager & Learning) Unilever Bangladesh Limited ZN Tower Plot # 2,
Road #8 Gulshan- 1, Dhaka 1212 Bangladesh. E-mail: rabiul.hossain@unilever.com
http://www.unilever.com.bd/
http://unilever.freeservers.com/html/company/history.htm
http://www.bangladeshdir.com/webs/catalog/unilever_bangladesh.html
6.4 Appendices
Organization
Name: ........................................................................................................
Establishing
year: ............................................................................................................
Location: ..................................................................................................................
........
Interviewee: .............................................................................................................
........
Questions
A. General
01. How does your company maintain the supply chain process?
02. Does your company use any type of information system to perform supply chain activities?
i. Yes ii. No
03. If your company uses supplies chain information system, what functions do you think as necessary for
your organization to maintain supply chain?
04. Does the performance of your company improved by using supply chain information system, and
how?
C. Managerial Skill:
01. Does the firm have the ability to adjust technology strategy alignment to accommodate the use of IT
and manage business process?
i. Yes ii. No
02. Does the firm have the ability to manage organizational change and supply chain restructuring on
internet based platform?
i. Yes ii. No
03. Does the firm have the ability to acquire expertise for managing internet based supply chain ability?
i. Yes ii. No
D. Partner Support:
01. Does the downstream customer have compatible system in place to support internet based value
chain activities such as online order and f\information system?
i. Yes ii. No