Kimberly-Clark
Canvas Category OEM : Pulp and Paper
Fueled by ingenuity, creativity, and an understanding of people’s most essential needs, Kimberly-Clark’s 46,000 employees around the world create products that help individuals experience more of what’s essential to them. Our well-known global brands, including Andrex, Cottonelle, Depend, Huggies, Kleenex, Plenitude, Poise, Scott and U by Kotex, are an indispensable part of life for people in more than 175 countries, and we hold the No. 1 or No. 2 brand share in 80 countries. We also understand our responsibility to make a positive contribution to the people we serve around the globe. Our sustainable practices support a healthy planet and build stronger communities to ensure our business thrives for decades to come. In all that we do, we’re building a legacy of positive impact.
Assembly Line
Self-Driving Vehicles Are Finding a Home in Industrial Operations
Kimberly-Clark credits hundreds of autonomous forklifts with helping the consumer-products company keep Kleenex facial tissue, Cottonelle toilet paper and other goods flowing to stores despite labor shortages during the Covid pandemic. Sharpie maker Newell Brands says the vehicles are helping deliver safety improvements and cost savings across the company’s operations.
Kimberly-Clark has more than 300 autonomous forklifts at its North American warehouses, up from about 30 in 2019, said Sarah Haffer, vice president of customer logistics for the company’s North America consumer division. Haffer said Kimberly-Clark’s warehouses with autonomous forklifts have provided some of the most consistent service levels to its retail customers. “We have been able to manage through Covid with real stability and beyond in terms of throughput and capabilities,” Haffer said.
Newell Brands, whose products also include Coleman outdoor recreation equipment and Rubbermaid food storage goods, uses more than 200 autonomous forklifts across its facilities. Newell Chief Executive Chris Peterson said robotic vehicles have reduced incidents of damage to goods and are delivering “significant cost savings.”
The case of the missing toilet paper: How the coronavirus exposed U.S. supply chain flaws
Before executives at consumer-goods giant Kimberly-Clark rushed to shut their offices on Friday the 13th of March, they convened for one last emergency meeting. Commuting home that final time, Arist Mastorides, president of family care for North America, stopped at his local Walmart, on the edge of Lake Winnebago in Neenah, Wis., to see the emergency firsthand. Mastorides oversees toilet paper brands like Cottonelle and Scott, but that evening he could find none of his own products. “A long gondola shelf that’s completely empty of bathroom and facial tissue, I never in my life thought I would ever see that,” he says. “That’s a very unsettling thing.”