At ASCM Connect 2024, I had the privilege of moderating an industry panel discussion titled “Orchestrating Digital Transformation”, which brought together thought leaders from Colgate-Palmolive, Nulogy, and Kinaxis to discuss our collaborative efforts in transforming Colgate-Palmolive’s external supply chain network. The panelists highlighted the importance of a holistic, results-driven digital transformation strategy in building an resilient, agile, and efficient external supply chain.
Throughout the discussion, the panel speakers offered valuable use cases and insights into how Colgate-Palmolive has leveraged leading technology platforms such as Nulogy and Kinaxis to harness accurate, high-fidelity data into improved planning and multi-enterprise collaboration with their external manufacturing partners.
Ready for my three key takeaways from the session? Let’s dive in.
1. The Necessity of Digital Transformation in Supply Chain Planning
German Vizcaya Leon, VP of Global Planning at Colgate-Palmolive, emphasized that the global supply chain landscape is becoming increasingly complex. Supply chains must adapt quickly to disruptions caused by geopolitical events, climate change, and evolving customer demands. In Colgate-Palmolive’s case, managing an extensive network of contract manufacturers and co-packers required a shift toward real-time, concurrent planning to stay ahead of these challenges.
German shared:
“We had to transform our systems to amplify our capabilities and reimagine how we are integrated with our external manufacturing ecosystem.”
Colgate-Palmolive’s digital transformation journey, enabled by Nulogy and Kinaxis, has allowed the global consumer brand to achieve better visibility across their network of external manufacturers to optimize capacity management and improve responsiveness to external disruptions.
2. The Role of Data in Driving Supply Chain Agility
Kevin Wong, COO at Nulogy, underscored the importance of accurate, real-time data in enabling effective decision making across the external manufacturing network. He elaborated on Nulogy’s role in connecting Colgate-Palmolive with its contract manufacturers to provide seamless data integration as well as shared visibility into supplier capacity, resulting in improved network collaboration that empowers both Colgate and its external partners to make timely, informed decisions. This enhanced collaboration and network effectiveness not only strengthens relationships but also creates win-win outcomes for all parties involved.
As Kevin explained:
“We see our role as ensuring that our customer network’s data is fresh and of high quality, so the enterprise systems can drive the business effectively. Without that, all its other advanced systems and AI won’t work.”
By utilizing Nulogy’s platform to provide real-time capacity and demand data, Colgate-Palmolive has been able to transform the way it collaborates with its external supply chain, connecting an array of digitally isolated partners into an integrated, cohesive, and responsive network.
“A platform like Nulogy allows us to connect with any external manufacturer no matter what their capabilities are, and feed well-defined data sets into Kinaxis, our concurrent planning tool.”
-German Vizcaya Leon, VP of Global Planning, Colgate-Palmolive
3. Building Trust and Collaboration with External Partners
Polly Mitchell-Guthrie, Supply Chain Thought Leader at Kinaxis, highlighted that digital transformation is not only about technology but also about people and processes. She stressed the importance of involving all stakeholders—both internal teams and external suppliers—in the digital transformation journey. Achieving this goal requires a shared understanding of the network’s challenges and a mutual commitment to improvement. Kinaxis’ AI-powered Maestro platform complements Nulogy by offering real-time scenario planning and impact analysis, enabling Colgate-Palmolive to react swiftly to any changes in supply or demand.
German further emphasized the importance of mutuality when discussing the benefits of a digital transformation strategy: “Our goal is to digitally integrate our ecosystems, but also provide efficiencies to all partners within those ecosystems as well,” he said.
Through the real-time data provided through Nulogy, Kinaxis enabled Colgate-Palmolive to enact efficient, effective responses across its external supply chain, making agile decisions to manage disruptions, whether they were from suppliers or customer demand shifts.
Polly underscored this scenario as being the difference between supply chain visibility and transparency, saying:
“Visibility is just the ability to admire a problem. Transparency is the ability to let you solve it.”
Lessons From the Panelists
I closed the session by emphasizing the importance of collaboration and mutual accountability in supply chain transformation strategies. Colgate-Palmolive’s journey showcases the tangible benefits of embracing digital transformation, from improving operational efficiency to building stronger partnerships with external manufacturers. The session’s discussion on transparency, data-driven decision-making, and collaboration offers a powerful example for companies looking to enhance their own supply chain resilience.
From my perspective, the bottom line is: “Supply chain professionals are uniquely positioned to solve the world’s biggest problems, but we have to work together to do it.”
As partners of Colgate-Palmolive’s digital transformation strategy, both Kevin and Polly had parting advice for the audience regarding the planning and implementation of digitally enabling an external manufacturing network:
Kevin: “Supply chains of the future will revolve around building an ecosystem of partners specializing in best of breed technology. You can focus on how these solutions will meet your organization’s goals by asking questions such as: ‘What do we need to solve? What are the workflows needed?’”
Polly: “Technology is only a piece of the puzzle; it’s people, processes, and technology together that deliver the results we all care about.”
A special thank you to German, Polly, and Kevin for contributing their thoughts and expertise to this panel session. As the moderator of the session, I was heartened to see Colgate-Palmolive, Nulogy, and Kinaxis shine a light on their digital transformation success story, powered by leading technology platforms that can deliver value to all parties and serve as an example for tomorrow’s agile and resilient external supply chains.
