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Trumbull, Conn.-Unilever plc, maker of Dove soap and Close-Up toothpaste, next month will flip the switch on a Web logistics system, the first in a string of Web efforts to integrate the supply chain management capabilities of its many operating units.
The e-logistics system will link Unilever subsidiaries Chesebrough- Pond's, Helene Curtis and Lever Bros. with the contract manufacturers that actually make their products. Unilever will place orders over the Web, after which the contract manufacturers can use the same site to update order status-when orders are in production, when they're tested for quality and when they're shipped.
Those status reports will be fed into Unilever's internal warehouse management and logistics systems in real time, so that Unilever can quickly coordinate the delivery of goods to retailers. Today, Unilever places orders and receives status reports piecemeal via the phone, e-mail and fax, and all transactions have to be entered manually into Unilever's supply chain management applications.
Such automation could cut several days off the time it takes to get goods to retailers, said Fred Berkheimer, Unilever's vice president of logistics. When...