Metro and Kimberly-Clark complete a CPFR pilot
Metro Group and Kimberly-Clark have completed a collaborative planning, forecasting and replenishment pilot through the GlobalNetXchange which has fed Metro’s promotional and sales forecast data into Kimberly-Clark’s back-end software to help match production and demand schedules, the companies said.
The CPFR project relied on an XML connection and automated data feeds that GNX developed to let the Metro and Kimberly-Clark applications exchange data, including all the information required to carry out promotions – start date, end date, theme, definitions of promoted products, and sales forecasts for each product.
The pilot proved that trading partners can leverage each other’s technology platforms to collaborate, said Axel Hopp, head of corporate information management for Germany-based Metro. "The ability to easily connect a retailer and manufacturer`s system platforms to enable `closed circuit collaboration` is finally a reality,” he said.
The two companies say the GNX system will also help them extend production and demand schedules by letting Metro feed its promotional and sales forecast data into Kimberly-Clark’s upstream supply chain processes, including inventory management, demand planning and production planning.
GNX provides a web-based platform for product sourcing and collaboration among retailers and their trading partners.
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