2023-12-28 
Kimberly-Clark Corporation, a venerable global leader in the personal care and professional products industries, has taken significant strides to streamline its order fulfillment and optimize transportation processes, recognizing the critical role of its supply chain in delivering essential paper-based consumer products to millions worldwide. With iconic brands like Kleenex, Cottonelle, and Huggies, the 151-year-old company, boasting over $20 billion in annual revenues and a workforce of 45,000 employees, has prioritized continuous improvement in its North American distribution network.
In the aftermath of the global pandemic, Kimberly-Clark sought to enhance product availability for both customers and end consumers while simultaneously addressing margin restoration. Scott DeGroot, Vice President of Global Planning and Logistics, emphasized the pivotal role of availability in driving revenue and top-line growth.
A key challenge identified in the company's logistics operations was the tendency for orders to "bunch up" during the week, causing fulfillment backlogs and delayed shipments. This issue was exacerbated by disparate systems that did not communicate or share data, leading to inefficiencies in planning and order fulfillment.
To overcome these challenges, Kimberly-Clark embarked on a quest to find a comprehensive solution. The company aimed to not only resolve order-bunching issues but also to upgrade its planning ecosystem with real-time visibility, an enhanced Warehouse Management System (WMS), and increased integration of robotics in its distribution centers.
The search led them to ProvisionAI's LevelLoad, a cloud-based transportation planning and optimization application. The LevelLoad solution enables Kimberly-Clark to identify and address order-bunching constraints, optimizing transportation planning and execution. Leveraging machine learning and optimization algorithms, LevelLoad tailors transportation plans to meet the company's specific needs, considering factors such as demand forecasting, transportation capacity, and customer service requirements.
DeGroot highlighted the agility of the LevelLoad platform in automatically analyzing various systems and attributes to create shipments that align with customer expectations, stock availability, labor availability, and transport capacity at each distribution site. The platform effectively bridges the gap between supply planning and execution, resulting in a streamlined transportation plan that reduces volatility, lowers costs, and accelerates deliveries.
The pilot project with LevelLoad yielded significant benefits for Kimberly-Clark. Daily variability was reduced by 40%, leading to improved on-time delivery and millions of dollars in transportation cost savings. The success prompted the company to expand the use of LevelLoad across all North American distribution sites, realizing multi-million dollar annual savings.
Looking ahead, Kimberly-Clark envisions applying AI-driven technology to optimize inbound freight and production schedules. The goal is to replicate the success achieved in outbound transportation planning and extend it to other facets of the supply chain.
DeGroot emphasized the importance of addressing specific business problems before selecting technology solutions, underlining the need to understand the root of the problem to ensure a strategic fit. Kimberly-Clark's journey with LevelLoad exemplifies a broader effort to digitize its supply chain and transform the overall performance of its global operations.
Source:https://www.logisticsmgmt.com/article/kimberly_clark_streamlines_order_fulfillment_optimizes_transportation
