STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT

(CASE STUDY)

Supply chain management at Hindustan Levers

presented by:
Dhanalakshmi
Suvitha
 Summary of the Case
 HLL is subsidiary of the Unilever an it is India’s largest fast moving consumer
goods(FMCG) company

 They are the leaders in home and personal care products, foods and beverages
and specialty chemicals , armed with the portfolio of 110 brands

 HLL has restructuring its businesses by focussing on the four areas of growth,
knowledge, talent and cost

 Business restructuring is a continual process and HLL invested close to Rs. 10

crores over a period of a year on the process itself

 The process resulted in HLL moving out of its non core areas, integration of
existing core areas and exploring new potential areas
 Marketing set up of the company

 Owing to the nature of there business activities, they need to launch several
products every year

 Streamlining procurement, operations management and marketing are

mammoth operations

 Supply chain management is the technique of operational effectiveness

 With supply chain management they are able to monitor all there
productions lines and manage existing distribution network to make way
for new products
 SCM mainly relies on the use of IT

 The company has a satellite base communication system, that offers voice
and communication facilities linking over 200 locations all over the
country

 Other initiatives on the IT front have been to support that streamlining of

the whole process

 E-Commere and B2C portal are used to reduce inventory levels an the
working capital cycle

 Continuous innovation in process an product management are the other

supporting initiatives
 The software being used by HLL for SCM was Mfg Pro, a software similar
to Enterprise Resource Planning

 With this software the HLL has been able to reduce the duration of
production runs

 Constant monitoring of inventory levels and servicing demand is done so

that no bottlenecks hold up the supply lines
 Difficulties faced in SCM implementation

 It is not a smooth process

 The process involves changing established ways of working and it could

turn out to be quite painful

 The success of SCM system depends on the quality of data provided to it

 There is a bigger challenge of decentralization of decision making to the

shop floor level

 The fear of making mistakes and getting one’s inefficiencies exposed are
the behavioral snags that any company implementing SCM has to contend
with