Analysis of logistics operations and stock management at Unilever Canada

联合利华加拿大公司以高昂的库存管理成本和配送中心(DC)的高出站物流成本为代价，实现了目标客户服务水平。联合利华将库存管理和物流运营视为占供应链成本很大一部分的两个主要流程，并面临着在保持客户服务水平的同时降低库存和物流成本的挑战。为了应对这一挑战，联合利华需要首先全面了解其供应链运营，分析DC的库存管理实践，并分析出站物流运营。这些任务将在这一拟议的研究项目中进行。该项目旨在全面了解加拿大的所有供应链流程，通过系统分析进行，并开发描述性和可能具有预测性的数据分析模型。这项研究将大量使用数据。将利用历史数据和预测数据开发描述性分析模型，将数据转化为有用的信息，以确定潜在的改进领域。描述性模型将与预测工具相辅相成，以确定供应链运作的优势和劣势。

Unilever Canada achieves its target customer service levels at the expense of high stock management costs as well as high outbound logistics costs at the distribution centers (DC). Unilever identifies stock management and logistics operations as two major processes that account for a big portion of supply chain costs, and faces the challenge of reducing stock and logistics costs while sustaining customer service levels. To address the challenge, Unilever needs to first develop a comprehensive understanding of its supply chain operations, to analyze stock management practices at the DCs, and to analyze outbound logistics operations. These tasks will be undertaken in this proposed research project. The project aims to develop a comprehensive understanding of all the Canadian supply chain processes, conduct through systems analysis, and develop descriptive and possibly predictive data analytics models. The research will make significant use of data. Both historical and forecast data will be used to develop descriptive analysis models that will turn data into useful information to identify potential areas of improvement. The descriptive models will be complemented with predictive tools to identify strengths and weaknesses of the supply chain operation.