Unilever Uses Virtual Factories to Tune Up Its Supply Chain
July 15 2019 - 12:29PM
Dow Jones News
By Jennifer Smith
Consumer-goods giant Unilever PLC is building virtual versions
of its factories, using data streaming from sensor-equipped
machines to create digital models that can track physical
conditions and enable testing of operational changes.
The "digital twin" strategy uses machine learning and artificial
intelligence to analyze torrents of information from connected
devices, and is aimed at making production more efficient and
flexible.
"We've got it in [plants that make] mayonnaise, soap, shampoos
and conditioners, laundry detergents," said Dave Penrith,
Unilever's chief engineer.
The approach is part of the growing use of the enormous streams
of data that flow from come from the Internet of Things, devices
embedded in objects including factory equipment that send out
information on how the equipment is operating. Such technology is
gaining traction in industrial operations from high-tech and
pharmaceutical manufacturing to oil fields and refineries as
companies look to improve operations by using tools such as
predictive maintenance to get to machine parts before they wear
out.
Unilever is working with Microsoft Corp. to create virtual
versions of dozens of its roughly 300 global plants over the next
year or so. The technology lets the Anglo-Dutch company make
real-time changes to optimize output, use materials more precisely
and help limit waste from product that doesn't meet quality
standards.
The devices send real-time information on temperature, motor
speed and other production variables into the cloud. Algorithms
take in the data and use advanced analytics to map out the best
operational conditions. Workers on site track product quality with
handheld devices, modeling solutions to problems and sharing data
with colleagues in other locations.
Unilever and Microsoft set up a pilot last year at a facility in
Valinhos, Brazil, that makes products including Dove soap and ice
cream. It took three or four weeks to create a full digital twin,
which the company used to set parameters for standards such as the
temperature at which soap is pushed out before being cut into
bars.
"If the temperature is too high you can use the machine to cool
the soap, " Mr. Penrith said.
The project has saved Unilever about $2.8 million at that site,
the company said, by cutting down on energy use and driving a 1% to
3% increase in productivity.
Unilever now has eight such digital twins of plants in North
America, South America, Europe and Asia. There have been some
challenges along the way, including developing ways to stream data
from older machines that aren't equipped with the latest
technology.
The strategy has helped increase production yields for products
such as shampoo and conditioner. Instead of stopping production to
check quality, operators track whether the process is hitting the
right parameters as set out by the algorithm and test the quality
offline, only interceding if production is getting off track.
"We don't remove the quality check but it allows us to move into
the next phase of the product with a much higher range of
confidence," Mr. Penrith said. "That's freed up capacity in our
factory without the need to install extra equipment."
The company is streaming data from 15 factories, with plans to
connect 70 sites by the end of the year and another 100 or so in
2020.
Unilever wants "to have a very clear digital representation of
their supply chain" by bringing in as much data as possible and
using advanced analytics to inform design and management decisions,
said Gartner Inc. vice president and analyst Noha Tohamy. Rivals
Procter & Gamble Co. and Colgate-Palmolive Co. are also
leveraging artificial intelligence and smart factory technologies
in their supply chains, she said.
Many companies are still trying to figure out how to harness the
huge volumes of that stream from connected machines and factories
without "drowning in data," Ms. Tohamy said. They also need to get
employees on board with the technology. "There can be some
skepticism on the part of the front-line users on how they're going
to use all this," she said.
Write to Jennifer Smith at jennifer.smith@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
July 15, 2019 12:14 ET (16:14 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2019 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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