Unilever puts business results first in factory digital twin rollout

As Unilever scales its digital twin use from five sites to dozens more across its global factory network, the company will carry a key lesson to each location: set clear initial goals and metrics, and track progress closely.

"As we started doing this work in the early days, we were probably not clear enough on making sure that we were driving a benefit that we could tangibly measure in the results," Vicky Cuthbert, chief product supply chain officer for the company’s personal care business, told Supply Chain Dive.

Over the next 18 months, Unilever will partner with consulting and technology services company Accenture to roll out artificial intelligence-enabled digital twins at about 40 locations. The expansion will be based on learnings from previous deployments at five manufacturing sites — one in the U.S., Poland and Vietnam, and two in India.

The technology will provide virtual models of equipment and production lines, collecting data from physical systems to monitor and predict performance and the effectiveness of the processes they run.

Cuthbert's experience with the digital twins already in production taught her the importance of defining the problem before deployment and measuring progress toward solving it.

"[The] time upfront, making sure that's very clear for all involved stakeholders is incredibly important," Cuthbert said.

Cuthbert warns managers not to underestimate the impact advanced technology has on people. Such technology offers a unique view of manufacturing processes, but it also affects employees responsible for production, product quality and other plant operations.

Avoiding mistakes requires training teams in the skills needed to work effectively with digital twins, Cuthbert said. Unilever has developed a program called DigiEdge that develops employees' digital skills across planning and factory operations using a gamified training format.

"Don't underestimate the overall organizational and cultural impact that this has, and how you need to take the organization along with you," Cuthbert said.

Digital twin potential

The digital twin promise that stands out for Cuthbert is predicting when factory equipment will likely need maintenance, based on sensor data. Reliable predictive maintenance will help manage production downtime and ensure the right spare parts are available, she said.

At the five sites using digital twins today, the technology has yielded several benefits, per a press release. The Raeford, North Carolina, personal care plant cut waste by 20% and increased capacity by 10%, while the Poznań, Poland, food factory reduced minor stoppages by up to 20%.

The Gandhidham, India, personal care plant reduced product defects by 30% over four years. The Cu Chi, Vietnam, home care facility saved 1% to 2% on premium ingredients.

Today, digital twins suggest corrections for problems that require human approval before any action is taken, Cuthbert said. Agents within the technology can sometimes act autonomously on low-risk processes, paving the way for more independent activity in the future.

"As we learn about how the human and the agent can coexist, that literally is adjusting depending on the process area every week at the moment," Cuthbert said.

Choosing a site

Unilever selects plants for digital twins from among its several hundred factories worldwide based on whether the technology can significantly improve and standardize particular operations. The goal is to eventually replicate the reworked processes at other sites, Cuthbert said.

"What we're looking for in terms of success for these applications is really as hardwired to the business as we can, and that could be a specific service impact, an improvement in agility or responsiveness, and then also the classical productivity and growth," Cuthbert said.

Generally, more technically advanced factories are chosen because they have the technology infrastructure, cybersecurity and data-gathering sensors on the production floor to support digital twins, Cuthbert said.

"There's a minimum amount that we need to have in place so that we're able to collect the information at the appropriate parts of the process that we're creating a twin," Cuthbert said.