Henkel: partnerships key to supply chain success

Following our interview with Henkel in April’s magazine, we take a closer look at the partners empowering Henkel’s digital transformation journey.

Henkel is a leading solution provider in three core areas: Adhesive Technologies, Beauty Care, and Laundry and Home Care. Over the past few years, the firm has experienced rapid transformation and has its finger on the pulse of the latest technological innovations. Henkel has developed key, strategic partnerships with a range of firms including Clevertech, Micro-Biolytics, Aveva Solutions, Zaptic, Parsable, Tableau Software UK, o9 Solutions and TEMBO.

Dirk Holbach, Corporate Senior Vice President Global Supply Chain Laundry & Home Care at Henkel, has a clear idea of what he looks for when seeking to establish a mutually beneficial collaboration. “There must be long-term and sustainable benefits on both sides of the partnership for it to be successful,” he explains. “It’s important that there is a level of openness that develops trust over time. This is especially true when times are volatile, and it is where you see the true value in dedicated partners.” 

Holbach believes each collaboration demonstrates significant value to Henkel and are critical components to success.

Clevertech: “We’ve worked with Clevertech for many years. It’s a well-established business in packaging our goods and making them ready for shipment. They have a real drive to add digital capabilities into their products and are an important partner to us.”

Micro-Biolytics: “The partnership focuses on chemistry analytics. We’ve been working together for a number of years and we are continuously trying out new ideas and concepts.”

Aveva Solutions: “The company is part of Schneider Electric and the home of Wonderware. They’re a special and long-term partner. Wonderware is the platform we use to connect all of our IOT together and the partnership is crucial to us.”

Zaptic: “It’s a newer player on the market with a no code platform to connect the shop floor workforce with digital instructions and daily management workflows. We’re now testing Zaptic’s solutions in our operations.”

Parsable: “They’re primarily focused on supporting companies through digitalisation. Although a relatively new partner, we’re currently evaluating various opportunities to build on their preconfigured platform.”

Tableau Software UK: “Tableau are now owned by Salesforce and are an important piece of our digital infrastructure. It’s our visualisation and analytics tool and they enable us to review all our data in supply chain and manufacturing.”

O9 Solutions: “They’re a very fast growing company and we’re checking how they can support us in our end to end planning process.”

TEMBO: “TEMBO are more of a traditional technology supplier and we’re working with them in the complexion of our product. They help supply machinery for unit dose and are based in the Netherlands so we can work very closely with them to expand our capabilities.”

- Dirk Holbach, Corporate Senior Vice President Global Supply Chain Laundry & Home Care at Henkel

To read more about Henkel’s digital transformation journey, click here!

For more information on procurement, supply chain and logistics topics - please take a look at the latest edition of Supply Chain Digital magazine.

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