From the Factory to the Retailer

Realizing Our Potential: Our Supply Chain Management. Many tasks, but only one area: since 2003, all global procurement, production, logistics and quality management activities have been bundled into the newly-established Supply Chain function.

The requirements are very broad. Which is why it is all the more important to link the various processes in such a way that the journey from the factory to the shelf runs smoothly. More than a third of all Beiersdorf employees worldwide work on a daily basis to:

	reduce production costs,
	keep inventories as low as possible throughout the entire supply chain, and
	continuously increase service and product quality.

We invest heavily in the continuous improvement of our supply chain management. For instance, new production facilities in Brazil were opened in 2003. We opened a new logistics center in France in 2004 with an area of 20,000 m², 28,500 pallet spaces, state-of-the-art technology and the highest safety standards. Total capital expenditure: €19 million. In the same year, we laid the foundation stone for a new high-bay warehouse in Hamburg with space for 15,500 pallets, in addition to the 60,000 spaces already available.

This new high-bay warehouse is equipped with state-of-the-art technology and connected with the old warehouses at the materials handling level – for even shorter distances and more efficient routes.

This integration is exemplary. We also implement it on a global level with the help of our SAP system, which is designed for utilization worldwide and is being used at more and more affiliates. It shows the respective inventories of the production facilities and calculates what is needed in each case to be able to supply our products in line with customer requirements.

Our production and logistics structure, which also integrates our retail partners, guarantees high availability of our products on shelves worldwide.

However, before a product can be delivered at all, it first has to be researched, developed, and marketed. Let’s take a look at our research and development activities, as well as at our marketing.