Creating a Sample Management System

Project Brief

This project aims to solve the essential problem of sample management (consisting of
sample ordering, shipping, storage and distribution) by creating a sample management
system that tracks, monitors and helps creating a simplified scheme of processes to
help attain cost efficiency, waste reduction and create a safer workplace environment.

Background

Unilever is a global leader in fast-moving consumer goods. It sells around 400

brands in more than 190 countries. 2.5 billion people use a Unilever product
every day.

As a new intern at Unilever, Rotterdam, I was a part of the Ice cream department for
the brand Carte D’or. As a part of my role for the Global marketing and innovation
department for the team, I was not only required to coordinate amongst all the
different categories and functions of the brand (namely In home, out of home, supply
chain, research and development, customer marketing insight, etc) but manage the Ice
cream samples that either arrived in the company or were shipped from it.
As far as my role for the sample management was concerned, here were the following
tasks I had to take care of:

 Ordering samples (from different suppliers or countries)

 Shipping samples (to different countries as a part of the destination portfolio
of our brand showcasing new recipes and flavours)
 Following up on samples after they are requested
 Collecting samples when they arrive
 Storing samples
 Managing the cold store
 Managing the in-office freezer where samples for tasting are kept

While managing all these activities, here are the problems I faced:

There were too many samples ordered and it was difficult to track each one of them,
as there was no tracking system for the Ice cream samples. Therefore following up
was very difficult and time consuming
Since there is no tracker, there is no account of how many samples we already have.
Thus a physical inspection is always required to check whether the samples are
available in the cold store of the in office freezer. If not, then the samples were
ordered. This again made the entire process time and energy consuming, long and
very redundant.
Any intern who is responsible for the Ice cream department could do the collection of
the sample. Therefore, there was no way to find out whether the sample I was
expecting had arrived or not. This sometimes led to confusion and re-order of
samples.
Storing samples were difficult because the cold store was a huge mess and the in
office freezer was very crowded with a lot of pre existing samples. Thus, finding
space in both the places was super difficult and navigating through the cold store was
at the cost of getting hurt by one of the many cartons left on the floor. This meant
more time was spent at the cold store, which at -30 degrees was painfully arduous.

I wanted to find out ways to solve this issue as this was not only costing the company
a lot of money but also was a time consuming process, and dangerous for the interns
working at the cold store.

I therefore related this scenario to the Inventory management process, which almost
operates in a similar way. The inventory management operation governs the
efficiency of storage of products (Afolabi et al, 2017). It is a system of activities
carried out to develop and maintain optimum level of inventory so that there is no
under or over production, which result in the increase in costs for the company.
Inventories are basically the “lubrication and spring for the production and
distribution system for the organization” (Afolabi et al, 2007). “Inventory
management involves planning organizing and controlling the flow of materials from
their initial purchase unit through internal operations to the service point through
distribution” (Smaros, et al., 2003).
The cost that the company incurs as a result of mismanagement of inventories can
cost the company a huge deal, which could have otherwise been used more
productively. A part of the inventory management system is also governed by the
storage and warehousing which is termed as Warehouse management system. This is
a system, which includes “warehouse infrastructure, tracking system and
communication between different product stations” (Afolabi et al, 2007).
A smart inventory management strategy can therefore not only help in uplifting the
profit margins of a company but they can also mean the difference between a thriving
business as compared to one that is barely surviving in the market.
Ghosh & Kumar (2003) described inventory as a supply of goods that is kept by a
business in expectation of potential demand. This definition was also supported by
other researchers, who stressed that inventory management, has an impact on all
business functions, particularly supply chain, logistics, operations, marketing,
accounting, and finance. Thus inventory management is an important business
function that not only helps streamline business processes and smooth running of
other business activities, but it is also a source of profitability and efficiency of a
company.

With this idea in my mind, I thought of devising a sample management system to

mitigate the problems faced by my department at Unilever.

I used the problem-solving model and SMART technique for the said situation.
Jamie Nord : Judgment and Problem Analysis

In order to implement this idea, I first had a meeting with all the Ice cream interns
who were a part of the cold store managing team and also responsible for the
incoming ice cream samples.

In this meeting:

 We first analysed the current condition of the cold store and sample storage
 We investigated what were the main concerns and why were they occurring
 Devised a strategy (through cold store mapping) to effectively plan to clean
and reorganize the cold store
 Came up with a tracker to monitor each of our roles and responsibilities
(dividing tasks of sample collection and storage and allotting it day wise
amongst each one of us) to ensure more accountability, and finally;
 We created a tracker to have all information about the Ice cream samples in
one place (which was constantly updated to have the latest information about
the samples).

Each intern responsible for his or her specific Ice cream department then went to their
respective team and asked for their help in cleaning the cold store. All of us brought
out this issue in each of our respective team meetings.

We discussed this with brand managers and assistant brand managers of our teams
and sought for their help in clearing the cold store. It was done so because even in a
specific brand, we had different segments and categories. For instance in Carte D’or
itself we have different ranges and segments namely
In home products- products that are directly directed to the consumers, example
through supermarkets likes Tesco
Out of home products- these are directed to restaurants that further create a dessert out
of the ice cream and then serve it to the consumers, for example Restaurant XYZ
selling brownie with Carte D’or vanilla ice cream
Scooping range- these are the ice cream cabinets in different cafes selling our ice
cream
Different brand managers manage each of the three categories.

After discussing the plan with the entire team and basically the entire Ice cream
department, we created an excel sheet to begin the cold store cleaning. This sheet had
a key specifying which person is in charge for which brand and segment of ice cream
and also a key specifying which intern would be assisting which brand. The sheet had
dates and timings mentioned that managers could just fill in as per their convenience
and availability. It would only take them a minute to do so and according to their
availability, an intern would align with them and clean the cold store at the said date
and time. The overall time we had allotted to clean the entire cold store was two
months.

Amongst the interns, we first created an excel sheet specifying which intern is in
charge for which day for the sample collection. We divided the sample collection
days (Monday to Friday) amongst all the five interns of the Ice cream department,
allotting one day to each. This helped us in giving more accountability and also
streamlined work as one intern did not compromise on other work to go to the cold
store for sample collection and storage, which usually took a good amount of time.

Next, we created an excel sheet as per my advise, for each of the brand. This excel
sheet consisted of all the information about the sample including (sample name, size,
quantity, sending party. Receiving party, address of the receiver, status, Date of
arrival, person who received, storage place, expiry date of the sample).

My team and all the others in the Ice cream department very well received this idea.
So much so that it was immediately implemented and we are now almost half a month
into the cold store cleaning. The tracker was made and so was the map for the cold
store.

I have also created a video explanation to explain this entire process.

Evaluation of the Process

On evaluating the process, hereforth mentioned are the short and long-term benefits I
found:

1) Tracking the samples became easy- One look at the sample and you could
identify which segment it belonged to, what is the status of it (i.e. requested,
shipped, arrived, stored)
2) Locating the samples saved us a lot of time- Through the tracker we were able
to identify whether the sample is stored in the cold store or the freezer in the
office and exactly which rack or shelf it was stored in
3) It gave more accountability- Because of having sample collection allotted day
wise to every intern, it was easy to track which intern was responsible to
collect samples on a certain day and therefore could be held accountable for
the sample.
4) The cold store became clean and easy to navigate. This meant no more cartons
lying around the floor and that each rack was numbered and specially
 dedicated to a specific brand. Samples could be therefore identified and
accounted for easily thereby saving company a lot of money that was
unnecessarily used up in reorder of samples. It therefore helped save storage
space, time, money and wastage of resources.
5) The long-term benefits of this process are in helping the company understand
the pattern of order (through sample tracking) of different countries and
therefore tailoring future sample recommendations as per their needs. It
basically helps in forecasting, need identifying and pattern recognition of
different countries that order through us.
6) The sample management also helps in avoiding waste as it has the expiry of
samples mentioned within the tracker. Once you know the sample is about to
expire or due to expire, you can either consume it or get away with it if it has
turned bad, thereby saving space that is otherwise being unutilized.

Recommendation, Conclusion and Outcome

There might be still gaps in this system as it is still a manually controlled system
which is prone to errors arising from not updating information and status on time,
filling in wrong information, being uninformed due to lack of communication, or due
to the reckless dumping of samples in the cold store. However, effective sample
control and management is definitely an integral component in the functioning of any
organization. The ability of any organization to evolve effective sample management
system will depend on the extent to which it perceives the benefits it stands to gain
from such a system.
Managements should therefore proactively adopt this sample management system and
find ways to further automate this process for ease of access and allocation.
Care should be taken to effectively manage the cold store even during high season i.e.
Ice cream day where all the departments call for their innovative samples in order to
showcase about their new product developments to the Heads of countries of Unilever
chain from all parts of the world.
The one month implementation of this system has resulted in optimal utilization of
available space and resources, cost reduction, improved profitability, reduction of
waste, safe environment creation, transparency and accountability, ease of storage and
easy retrieval of samples from the storage therefore facilitating excellent inventory
utilization.

References

J, Afolabi & Onifade, Morakinyo Kehinde & Odeyinka, Olumide. (2017). Evaluation
of the Role of Inventory Management in Logistics Chain of an Organisation.

Ogbo, Ann & Ifeyinwa Victoria, Onekanma & Ukpere, Wilfred. (2014). The Impact
of Effective Inventory Control Management on Organisational Performance: A Study
of 7up Bottling Company Nile Mile Enugu, Nigeria. Mediterranean Journal of Social
Sciences.

Ghosh A.K. and Kumar P. (2003). Production Management. New Delhi: Anmol
Publication Pvt. Ltd