The Four Priorities Powering P&G Product Supply

Behind every bottle of Tide, package of Pampers and Oral-B iO electric toothbrush is a global supply chain working to get that product where it needs to be, when it needs to be there. P&G Product Supply, the organization behind our manufacturing and supply chain operations, brings together world-class people, technology, data and innovation to build a supply chain that is faster, smarter, more resilient and ready for what’s next.

Four strategic priorities are helping P&G Product Supply do just that:

• Delivering for Consumers Through Supply in Full
• Providing a Superior Employee Experience
• Creating a Smarter Supply Chain with Seamless Data and Touchless Flow
• Advancing Sustainability

These priorities aren’t just ideas on a page. They’re coming to life every day across P&G’s manufacturing plants, distribution centers and supply networks around the world and changing what’s possible across Product Supply.

Let’s take a closer look at each.

Delivering for Consumers Through Supply in Full

Imagine you’re standing in a store, only to discover that the Tide product you came for isn’t in stock. Or you’re placing an online order for diapers and the Pampers size your baby needs is suddenly unavailable.

For consumers, an out-of-stock product can be a frustrating inconvenience. For P&G, it’s a moment we work hard to prevent.

Supply in Full is about making sure P&G products meet our quality standards and are available to shoppers whenever and wherever they shop. Our goal is to achieve 98% on-shelf and online availability, helping consumers reliably find the P&G products they’re looking for.

Supply in Full is part of Supply 3.0, P&G’s strategy for driving growth, value and competitive advantage by strengthening how we manage the movement of our products around the world. One way we’re bringing Supply 3.0 to life is through One Supply Chain. Instead of thinking about P&G’s operations and a retailer’s operations as separate links in a chain, One Supply Chain brings them closer together. By connecting P&G’s supply chain processes and technologies directly with retailers’ systems, teams gain better visibility and can make faster decisions as products move from our manufacturing plants to distribution centers, store shelves and consumers’ doorsteps.

The result? A supply chain that can see more, respond faster and do a better job of keeping P&G products within reach of the people who count on them.

Investing in People Who Power Product Supply

The manufacturing plants of the future may be more digital and automated, but there’s one thing that hasn’t changed: people are what make P&G Product Supply exceptional.

As technology transforms how products are made and moved, we’re investing in employees so they can grow right alongside it, building new skills, opening new career paths and giving teams better tools to solve problems and make an impact.

SPARK, P&G’s global manufacturing digital training program, is one example. SPARK is designed to build digital fluency across plant teams, expand career pathways for technicians and develop the next generation of digital leaders.

And this isn’t training for training’s sake. Participants tackle real manufacturing scenarios, work across functions and learn how to put data and technology to work solving problems they encounter on the job. Through self-paced digital learning, live virtual sessions, podcasts, videos and in-person experiences, employees can build skills in ways that work for them and then put those skills into action.

That innovative approach has even earned recognition beyond P&G: Fast Company recognized P&G as a Best Workplace for Innovators in the Industrial and Manufacturing category in response to the SPARK program.

Creating a Smarter Supply Chain with Seamless Data and Touchless Flow

What if a manufacturing operation could keep running safely and reliably for hours without anyone there to operate it?

At P&G, that’s already happening. Seamless Data and Touchless Flow is how we connect data and technology across our supply chain to make it smarter, more automated and more responsive. By connecting the right information and putting it to work through analytics, AI and automation, we can anticipate needs, make faster decisions and reduce unnecessary manual touchpoints. That can mean smarter, more automated operations inside our plants, as well as better coordination across suppliers, P&G and our retail customers. Ultimately, it helps us move products more efficiently, better serve consumers and create opportunities for joint growth with our retail partners.

One of the most exciting examples is what we call Unattended Operations. At P&G’s Grooming plant in Berlin, Germany, the team achieved a four-hour unattended night shift. But what makes that possible, and why does it matter?

• Manufacturing has traditionally relied on close human oversight of equipment to keep production moving.
• Running for four hours unattended means the technology, processes and systems must work together with a high degree of precision and reliability.
• By enabling production to continue safely and reliably during overnight hours, Unattended Operations can reduce the need for employees to work less desirable night shifts, supporting a better employee experience. At the same time, it helps the Berlin plant maintain production capacity and meet growing consumer demand.
• During the day, smart manufacturing lines allow employees to focus less on repetitive tasks and more on work that benefits from their judgment and expertise.

Berlin is only the beginning. Building on early insights and learnings, P&G has started to expand pilots of Unattended Operations to other locations around the world.

P&G is also applying intelligent automation to quality control. Intelligent vision systems can perform precise quality checks, helping ensure products meet P&G’s high standards while reducing scrap waste.

The impact of a smarter supply chain adds up. Last fiscal year, Product Supply delivered $1.5 billion in savings through cost optimization, enabling more than $300 million to be reinvested in product and packaging excellence. That means efficiencies behind the scenes can fuel improvements consumers can see and experience in the products they use every day.

Delivering Ambition 2030 through Operational Excellence & Innovation

For P&G Product Supply, operational excellence isn’t only about making and moving products efficiently. It’s also about finding better ways to do it.

In 2021, P&G announced an ambition to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions across its supply chain and operations by 2040, from raw material to retailers. To help pace our progress toward 2040, we have established near-term science-based targets for 2030 related to Scope 1 & 2 emissions, renewable electricity and transportation emissions. P&G also set a goal to reduce supply chain emissions* by 40% per unit by 2030 versus a 2020 baseline, an important milestone on the path toward net zero.

Reaching our net zero ambitions requires innovation, cost-effective new technologies, and continued progress across our operations.

At P&G’s Budapest site, for example, the team is building a geothermal energy system designed to replace natural gas with a local, renewable resource to both heat buildings and support manufacturing processes. The project is expected to reduce the plant’s greenhouse gas emissions by approximately 90% from 2010 levels.

P&G is also looking beyond our own walls to help accelerate change across industry. A founding member of the Renewable Thermal Collaborative (RTC), a coalition working to accelerate clean industrial heat, P&G supports RTC and its work to help suppliers advance their clean heat transition.

Together, these efforts demonstrate how sustainability and operational excellence can go hand in hand.

Looking Ahead

P&G has long set a high bar for supply chain operations, and we’re continuing to raise it. By challenging what’s possible and investing in what’s next, we’re building a supply chain designed to keep P&G leading for years to come.