HOW UNILEVER IS BUILDING AN AI-POWERED GLOBAL SUPPLY CHAIN
From forecasting millions of product and customer combinations to deploying digital twins across factories, Unilever is building an interconnected, AIpowered supply chain designed to respond faster to changing consumer demand, global disruption and major retail events. or a consumer goods business
F operating at Unilever’ s scale, supply chain management is no longer simply about moving products efficiently from factories to retailers. It is increasingly becoming a technology-led operation in which AI, digital twins, real-time data and human expertise combine to predict demand, manage disruption and unlock growth.
Every day, Unilever moves products from hundreds of factories through complex global networks to reach billions of consumers. The challenge is ensuring those products are available where and when they are wanted, while responding to demand patterns that can change almost instantly.
According to Vicky Cuthbert, Chief Product Supply Chain Officer for Personal Care, Unilever, that shift has fundamentally changed the speed at which supply chains need to operate.
Demand cycles for consumer brands, she says, have shortened from months to hours. Unilever has responded by investing in people, AI and digital technologies, while reducing concept-topilot timelines to 12 weeks and developing more predictive customer operations.
The goal is to create a supply chain capable of anticipating change rather than simply reacting to it.
From consumer signal to factory floor
One example of this approach was the Dove x Crumbl collaboration at Walmart. Social listening helped identify consumer interest, while production, replenishment and product variant releases were adjusted using live feedback and demand signals.
The collaboration illustrates the increasingly connected nature of retail, marketing and supply chain operations. Consumer behaviour can now influence decisions stretching all the way back to manufacturing and material sourcing.
Unilever is extending this principle through its AI-enabled customer connectivity model with
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