CLIENT CONTEXT

Unilever is a global consumer-products company. In China, the FMCG market is complex and fast-moving, shaped by rapid channel shifts, promotion cycles, e-commerce growth and rising fulfillment expectations. Supply-chain digitalization is therefore a continuous innovation agenda, not a one-off reporting project.

Partnership path: since 2018, Guandata's collaboration with Unilever China has evolved from AIDP demand forecasting to RTS fulfillment, Hawkeye logistics-cost control and Wukong FTC intelligent control center.

Guandata has served as a long-term strategic data-intelligence partner for Unilever China since 2018. The collaboration is centered on Mainland China, with selected extensions to Taiwan and Korea. Unilever is also an SAP customer, and its network spans manufacturing, warehousing, transportation, distributors, e-commerce platforms and direct-to-consumer fulfillment.

BUSINESS CHALLENGES

Unilever China's supply-chain operations involve forecasting, warehousing, transportation, distributors, e-commerce channels and consumer-facing fulfillment. As the market kept changing, the challenge was not simply reporting visibility, but continuously turning fragmented operational data into governed metrics, exception signals and actions.

The business also needed refined logistics-cost attribution across a broad multi-tier network, plus faster fulfillment response and more flexible inventory deployment for e-commerce and direct-to-consumer formats.

GUANDATA SOLUTION

Guandata supported Unilever China through a phased, multi-year supply-chain digital transformation program. Instead of a one-time rollout, the collaboration built a data-intelligence and decision-support layer across forecasting, channel collaboration, logistics cost control and intelligent fulfillment.

Key solution waves included AIDP intelligent demand forecasting across S&OP; RTS omnichannel fulfillment collaboration across brand, distributor, warehouse and platform data; Hawkeye logistics-cost control, using module-dimension-driver attribution to support business-finance cost management; and Wukong FTC intelligent control center for replenishment, production scheduling and cross-network dispatch in the Hefei factory-to-consumer operation.

SELECTED ANALYTICS SCENARIOS

BUSINESS IMPACT

Across Unilever China, the partnership value is visible in how capabilities compounded over time: AIDP built the forecasting foundation, RTS extended into omnichannel fulfillment, Hawkeye refined logistics-cost governance, and Wukong FTC supported a new factory-to-consumer model.

RTS supported fulfillment collaboration for Unilever's direct e-commerce business as it scaled at 60%+ CAGR, and supported logistics-complaint reduction in the Tmall Supermarket collaboration. Hawkeye strengthened CPT-based logistics-cost governance, helping shorten settlement periods by 80% and supporting approximately 10% annual logistics-cost savings.

For the Hefei FTC lighthouse project, Unilever Hefei FTC Logistics Operation Center was selected into the World Economic Forum Global Lighthouse Network as a supply-chain resilience lighthouse. Center-level outcomes included +50% inventory carrying capacity, -24% overall logistics cost, 2x fulfillment efficiency and approximately 75% shorter production-to-consumer delivery time.

Guandata contributed Wukong FTC as the core data-intelligence system supporting operational visibility, intelligent replenishment, production scheduling and control-center operations.

DATA & PROCESS SCOPE

Mainland China is the core cooperation scope, with selected extensions to Taiwan and Korea.

Covers forecasting, channel collaboration, logistics cost, fulfillment and FTC operations.

KEY TAKEAWAY

This case shows a long-term data-intelligence partnership supporting supply-chain, fulfillment, logistics-cost and factory-to-consumer operations innovation in a fast-changing FMCG environment.