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    Kimberly Clark Digital Supply Chain Case Study

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    Kimberly Clark Digital Supply Chain Case Study

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    Kimberly Clark Digital Supply Chain Case Study (1)

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    Kimberly Clark Digital Supply Chain Case Study

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    Digital supply chain CASE STUDY // KIMBERLY-CLARK | 1

    CASE STUDY | Digital supply chain

    Kimberly-Clark

    For Kimberly-Clark, the road to greater resiliency and sustainability within its supply chain is increasingly
    digital. The global manufacturer of pulp and paper products—including Kleenex tissues and Scott paper
    towels—brings in some $20 billion in annual sales, and maintaining visibility throughout its global ecosystem
    is a critical component to that success.

    “You have to give people eyes,” says Tamera Fenske, Chief centers are. I can see every single order; I can see where
    Supply Chain Officer at the company. “[Employees] have it’s going.” This degree of visibility allows the company to
    to be able to see the problem, the flow, the information. find solutions to problems before they cascade into major
    I’m convinced that if you give them that power, they will issues. “We can be proactive rather than reactive. We need
    make the right decisions, they’ll solve the problems, and to be able to react and respond before somebody calls
    they’ll get product where it needs to be.” Kimberly-Clark and yells at us.”
    has taken major strides to develop a series of data-sharing The lessons learned during the Covid 19 pandemic,
    suites that forge deeper digital relationships with both when stocks of toilet paper suddenly were in short supply,
    suppliers and customers to create clear views from the have emboldened Kimberly-Clark to embed itself even
    forest floor to the grocery store shelf, she says. These more directly into the information flows of both its critical
    systems allow managers to monitor manufacturing, suppliers and key customers and break down silos to
    transportation, and even the carbon footprint of their reduce such risks in the future.
    production cycle—often in real time.
    “We’ve become laser-focused on driving those
    “We’ve created a control tower where we can see all of the connections. We need it on the supplier side, and we
    orders coming in, we can see what the queue is, we can need it on the consumer side,” Fenske says. “How do we
    see how we allocate that out to our distribution centers, overlay a full digital infrastructure with our physical supply
    and then we can actually start to see it flow through,” chain? That’s what we have to get to. We all talk ‘end to
    Fenske says. “I have a map that I can pull up any time, end,’ but that digital connection is just as important to
    and I can see how far ahead or behind our distribution strengthen resilience.

    “[Employees] have to be able to see the problem, the flow, the information. I’m
    convinced that if you give them that power, they will make the right decisions,
    they’ll solve the problems, and they’ll get product where it needs to be.”

    Copyright 2023 - SAP and Oxford Economics. All rights reserved.


    Digital supply chain CASE STUDY // KIMBERLY-CLARK | 2

    To drive that message home more directly, Kimberly-Clark program to map the flow of products, from the bulk fiber
    recently launched what it calls a “90-day challenge” with that enters a paper factory, to the finished products that
    a handful of key suppliers. The initiative aims to foster land on store shelves.
    digital innovations that can improve the flow of information,
    “We’re going to walk from our distribution center to their
    enhance transparency, and even inspire collective efforts to
    fulfillment center to see how the product leaves, all the way
    reduce the use of plastics in the packaging of products.
    from inbound to us, outbound, inbound to them and then
    The goal is to get so deeply embedded in the data systems outbound to the customer.” The goal is to assess what
    of key customers that the company can “see their forecast, steps might be cut out of the process to boost efficiency,
    their demand, and it’s coming through into our system,” resiliency and ultimately reduce the company’s carbon and
    Fenske says. “We now have a handful of those where we’re plastics footprint.
    completely connected on the customer side. And now
    Looking ahead, Kimberly-Clark hopes to harness the
    we’re working to get more connected on the supplier side.
    power of Artificial Intelligence and tools like Chat GPT to
    We’re really using our suppliers to help drive innovations for
    make the manufacturing processes even more efficient and
    us through the whole value chain.”
    transparent. That is in keeping with most organizations
    By making this kind of deep transparency a corporate in the Oxford Economics study—58.5% of whom have
    priority, Kimberly-Clark distinguishes itself from many already deployed intelligent technologies like AI with another
    companies recently surveyed by Oxford Economics, in 55.8% saying AI is used to nearly the same extent as cloud.
    partnership with SAP. The survey of 1,000 global supply But executives are proceeding with caution, particularly
    chain executives found that only 32% of respondents said as generative AI ramps up. “Of course, we have the same
    they had complete transparency into their supply chain’s questions everybody else does,” about the capabilities of
    manufacturing, sourcing, or product delivery. However, AI and the need to protect proprietary information, Fenske
    nearly half of those surveyed (47.2%) said improving says. Once it is “a little more understood and we know we
    visibility with suppliers and across the value chain would can control it, we could drive more connections seamlessly
    generate greater resiliency. with suppliers and customers.”

    Other challenges remain. “We need to move further Fenske expects the introduction of more sophisticated
    towards demand sensing,” she says. “It’s really beneficial tools, like AI and predictive analytics, will weave the
    to have that real time data.” To strengthen that message company’s intricate web of suppliers and customers ever
    and information sharing, and to help boost the company’s more closely into the tactics and execution strategies
    sustainability efforts, Fenske’s staff has embarked on a being developed at corporate headquarters.

    “We need to move further towards demand sensing…


    it’s really beneficial to have that real time data.”

    For more information, visit www.sap.com.


    Copyright 2023 - SAP and Oxford Economics. All rights reserved.

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