1.

Supply chain structure

Uniqlo supply chain structure has 3 main parts which are:  Source, Make and Deliver
1.1.Source:
Raw material & Suppliers:
Calza, F., & Passaro, R. (1997) stated that raw materials will be purchased and sold by
different suppliers to Unilever and that raw materials are concentrated in large factories by
different product types, such as raw materials used to make toothbrushes, will be purchased
and sorted separately, product packaging authorized by Unilever to an outside company. A.B.
Brown (1991) found that Unilever currently has roughly 60,000 suppliers, and a goal to spend
2 billion euros ($2.4 billion) of its annual supplier budget with diverse suppliers by 2025.
Then the factories receive raw and packing materials from suppliers. The transport between
supplier and SU is referred to as Inbound Logistics ( Brito.B, 2016). As of January 2021,
Unilever spent 350 million euros with diverse suppliers.
1.2. Make
Manufacturing:
Unilever has production plants in many countries around the world, including Vietnam.
Currently, there are 5 factories in: Hanoi, Cu Chi, Thu Duc and Bien Hoa industrial park.
Each factory will focus on producing different product lines such as oral care products, food
products, personal care products, and liquid household cleaning products. Duy. T ( 2018)
stated that procured materials are transformed into packed stock available for packing and
processing.
 Processing uses production lines, labour and machines to convert raw materials into
intermediate products in suitable form available for packing and finishing. Each Unilever
manufacturing plant, invested with nearly 300 million USD, is equipped with many modern
machines and production lines, 100% automated, the entire production process is automated
and applied technology to manage, production plants are applied green and sustainable
processes in production. To make sure the production lines can run uninterruptedly, important
procedures such as buffering of materials, continuous review of machinery capacity and
machine maintenance are necessary to keep expenses from machine changeover to a
minimum.
Packaging uses machines to package intermediate products in flexible film (laminated and
stretch film), then uses manual labour to put laminated packages into paper boxes and seal it
with tapes. Afterwards, these boxes are finally available for stock keeping. Once production
is complete, the products are sent to one of over 100 Distribution Centers (DC) in each
country (Brito.B, 2016).
1.3. Deliver
Last but not least, step “deliver” guarantees that the finished products can be distributed on-
time to Unilever ’s partners and consumers in the right quantity and quality, as well as makes
sure that customers and consumers are content with the products and service that Unilever
Distribution: After the packaging process, finished goods are kept for a short time at the
factory warehouse. Then finished goods are dispatched either straight to Unilever partners’
sales outlets, or to Unilever Distribution Centre (Duy. T ( 2018)). Unilever's distribution
network covers the whole world, depending on the characteristics of each different region, in
each country Unilever has main distribution centers for each region, these are the largest
warehouses and transshipment points of Unilever in that region. Distribution centers are
responsible for delivering goods to neighboring areas.  For example, in Vietnam, Unilever
has 3 main distribution centers in Bac Ninh, Binh Duong and Da Nang, these distribution
centers will deliver products to the west, south and north and 18 countries around the world
through a network of more than 150 distributors and more than 300,000 retailers, then
Unilever products will be delivered to consumers.

2. Management objectives
2.1.  Minimize cost

With a huge supply chain system, the company's annual costs are very large, with the goal of
minimizing costs, Unilever has applied many processes and technologies, especially in

-   Inventory management costs: with the application of technology in management, it has

helped employees manage through an Ipad and greatly reduce labor costs

-   Shipping, delivery and receipt costs: Unilever has outsourced to a specialized shipping unit
and managed through software, Unilever will not need to invest in initial equipment costs,
staff to transport themselves,

2.2. Save Time

- Save time in inventory management

Standardizing and automating structured, repetitive tasks streamlines them and helps them be
done more efficiently. Furthermore, automating inventory management also increases
accuracy and reduces human errors and guesswork. Automation allows you to ensure that
your data is always up to date and also create orders based on pre-established metrics.
Automating your inventory management can make your business more competitive. By
taking advantage of the automated inventory system, Unilever saves huge amount of time

- Save time on order processing

By system regulation and technology application by departments, all orders generated by

Unilever are handled by software and according to a pre-programmed process censored by
humans, the process of 1 order successfully processed is greatly shortened