Supply Chain Collaboration and Visibility

Colgate Supports Worldwide Brands with Global Supply Chain

Situation: Colgate operates in more than 200 countries and manages brands globally. Colgate began rolling out the SAP® core enterprise solution in 1995 to improve its operations. While this contributed to large gains in efficiency, Colgate wanted more visibility into customer demand and its own capacity so it could serve customers better.

Goal: Colgate aimed to upgrade supply chain performance worldwide by replacing a regional sourcing model with a fully globalized supply chain built around vendor-managed inventory (VMI) with key accounts, cross-border sourcing, and collaborative planning with downstream subsidiaries. The business objective: improve service to retail and internal customers and reduce inventory and total delivered cost.

Process/Tools: Colgate selected mySAPTM Supply Chain Management (mySAP SCM) to provide instant, real-time access to information about orders, forecasts, production plans, and key performance indicators such as inventory levels and fulfillment rates.

Results: Colgate improved customer order fulfillment rates to 95 percent. It improved on-time and complete orders from 70 percent to 98 percent for VMI replenishment. It lowered inventory by 10 percent and reduced overall order cycle times. Colgate also increased compliance levels for intra-company replenishment.

mySAP SCM capabilities are critical to enhancing Colgate’s global supply chain performance. mySAP SCM enables Colgate to gain visibility into global logistics data. It allows the company to optimize operations through the use of advanced mathematical planning functions. And it provides a platform for collaboration with Colgate customers and partners. By leveraging mySAP SCM, Colgate is progressing toward excellence in supply chain planning across worldwide operations.