Wednesday Dec 11, 2024
Wednesday Dec 11, 2024
Friday, 18 March 2011 01:04 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
The Supply Chain Business Partner event, hosted by Unilever Sri Lanka at the Cinnamon Grand in January, broke new ground in the Sri Lankan manufacturing business, bringing together a significant number of the Unilever supply chain team and their business partners.
It was the first time such an extensive event was held to host and felicitate a wide array of the industry’s leading suppliers.
At this event, Unilever Sri Lanka shared business strategies and future plans with the business partners, thus facilitating their involvement and enhancing their input to the overall business. The key objective was to ensure that the business partners are aligned with Unilever Sri Lanka’s strategies and deliverables so that the partnership is rendered more effective. Business partners, including raw and packing material suppliers and outsourced manufacturing operations personnel, were invited to attend this event.
The highlight of the evening was a ceremony at which awards were presented in recognition of outstanding service delivered by the business partners during the year 2010. Partners were evaluated throughout 2010 by means of a vendor evaluation scheme for both packaging materials and outsourced manufacturing sites for quality, timely delivery and customer service. Suppliers were also rated on their compliance with Unilever Good Manufacturing Practices and their overall contribution to the company’s enhancement.
In 2010, the Unilever Supply Chain team also worked with their business partners to upgrade them to the highest rating they could achieve in accordance with the standards of the company. The result was immensely gratifying, as Unilever Sri Lanka were able to bestow an ‘A’ rating on seven of their business partner sites.
Outsourced manufacturing business partners were rated on quality performance, safety, health and environment performance and customer service performance. A systematic process of auditing has ensured that the business partners complied with standards related to these categories, with optimum benefits to Unilever and their loyal customer base.
Addressing the gathering, Amal Cabraal, Chairman of Unilever Sri Lanka, laid out the company’s growth targets for 2015 and invited the business partners to join with the company as they embark on the ambitious journey of doubling the current business.
Cabraal stressed the need for suppliers and business partners to be more agile, more flexible and more responsive as the demands of the consumer and the marketplace grow more complex. He thanked the business partners for the years of loyal and dedicated support and extended an invitation for them to continue to contribute through new ways of thinking, innovations and new technology in order to continue the mutually beneficial partnership to grow the businesses of Unilever Sri Lanka as well as those of the business partners.
Commenting on the event, Lakshman de Fonseka, Managing Director of JF Packaging, asserted: “We were very encouraged to hear of Unilever’s plans of doubling the business by 2015. The whole event gives us fresh hope for the future.”
Unilever Sri Lanka hopes to make this an annual event, with plans to extend it to a wider group in the years ahead.
