common business processes mean better communication

Unilever operates several dozen warehouse

sites across Europe with a number of different logistics
partners. In 2005, this global manufacturer of food, home
care, and personal products identified an opportunity to
Use of GS1 eCom XML messages
improve the way it works with these partners, through have significantly streamlined
the standardisation of processes, the establishment
of electronic messaging and the consolidation of communication between
connectivity. DHL Supply Chain, the contract logistics arm Unilever and DHL
of DHL, was one such partner.

The two companies worked together on what they named

the Warehouse Communication Integration (WCI) project. Unilever and DHL jointly created strong central teams
WCI is a business process model based on common consisting of IT and business champions covering the
business processes and messages and connectivity United Kingdom, Spain, Belgium, Slovakia, Hungary,
standards. WCI was Ireland and Portugal.
established as a The WCI project
pan-European effort, became an enabler
covering all Unilever of the Unilever
product categories SAP Consolidation
and focusing on programme and
DHL Supply Chain’s was also linked with
core warehouse DHL’s Enterprise
management Systems Integration
activities. Warehouse (ESI) developments,
management is ensuring that the
the receipt, storage two partners were
and preparation of technically very well
products for customer aligned from the start
delivery on the basis of the project.
of orders, as well
as the control and By the end of 2008,
disposal of damaged WCI standards were
or obsolete stock. deployed to DHL sites
in UK, Spain, Hungary,
The WCI standard’s Belgium and Slovakia,
objectives were to and standards will
establish a limited continue to be
set of 16 GS1 XML message-types that would be used to deployed for new business and new warehousing sites
cover all the business requirements for warehousing for servicing the participating Unilever business units into
the Unilever business units involved, as well as to create 2010 and beyond. Connectivity was moved toward
a single point of connectivity between Unilever and DHL. AS2 and Internet and away from VANs and resulted in
Unilever and DHL also aimed to standardise best practice significant cost benefits.
processes in the warehouses covered by the project.
 WCI makes use of a wide range
of GS1 standards, including GS1
Identification Keys such as GTIN,
GLN, and SSCC; GS1 BarCode
standards such as GS1-128 for
labeling; and a wide range of
GS1 eCom XML messages.
WCI covers all the processes
that take place within the four
walls of a warehouse, with a set of 16 standard interfaces
based on GS1 eCom XML standards. The messaging
includes processes in master data management for items
and locations; inbound goods such as upfront notification
of receipt, receipts confirmation; outbound goods such
as instruction to dispatch, delivery, re-pack and dispatch
confirmation; inventory control and management such
as stock reconciliation, sampling, scrapping, (quarantine)
status, re-palletisation, pallet de-topping and physical
movements.

Deployment of the WCI standard has significantly

streamlined communication between Unilever and DHL,
speeding up the launch of new business activities and
sites. The creation of a single point of connectivity has also
improved the reliability of connectivity to levels well above
what was achievable before WCI. Best practices identified
in individual warehouses are now more easily transferred
to other sites.

The standardisation delivered by the WCI standard has in the eCom related
also allowed Unilever to roll out its SAP consolidation developments for this sector.
programme more quickly. Because it is based on the The Logistics Interoperability
concept of “develop once, deploy anywhere,” another Model (LIM) documented what processes happen in the
major benefit has been the reduction of support and warehouse management and transportation, so that
maintenance costs. The level of efficiency gains realised by further developments of the GS1 eCom standards are
the project partners through the initial WCI rollout has led based on the LIM. This development is ongoing now, as
to the decision to deploy the standard to the remaining part of the Logistics eCom work group, and both Unilever
sites, and to all new sites. and DHL are working to ensure that the learnings from the
WCI project are incorporated into future releases of GS1
During the project, the partners found that the then- XML standards.
available versions of the GS1 XML messages did not always
cover all the requirements of the warehouse processes For more information about Unilever, visit
they were operating. In some cases, extensions to the www.unilever.com
standard GS1 eCom XML messages had to be created. For more information about DHL Supply Chain,
Unilever and DHL are both actively engaged in GS1 visit www.dhl.com
Transport and Logistics User Group and in particular,