SUCCESS STORY
36% reduction in lead times
Embedding Packaging Innovation Excellence
- How Unilever reduced waste by 31%, improved performance, and built sustainable capabilities
Our Impact
Lead time reduction
36% improvement, resulting in £1 million in cost savings
Waste reduction
31% decrease, supporting sustainability goals
3.8:1 return
High demand for rollout across global centres
background
Unilever, one of the world’s largest fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies, has a strong legacy of innovation in packaging, continuously seeking ways to enhance its development capabilities.
the challenge
As capabilities across Unilever’s global development centres improved, the organisation sought to maximise potential and drive innovation further. To achieve this, they needed a structured and scalable approach continue to continuously improve packaging innovation while ensuring best practices were applied.
Several key challenges were identified:
- While progress had been made, Unilever needed to address capability gaps by standardising and expanding its expertise
- Knowledge and techniques varied across development centres, impacting hands-on training approach efficiency and scalability
- Beyond theoretical knowledge, Unilever needed a to ensure employees could immediately apply best practices in real-world projects
our solution
To address these challenges, Henkan collaborated with Unilever Global Packaging to create an elite Packaging Excellence Programme, focusing on three core areas:
1. Codifying best practices:
- Developed a comprehensive set of reference handbooks in collaboration with Unilever’s experts
- Ensured a balanced mix of theory and practical application to enhance understanding and relevance
2. Global training programme:
- Designed a structured one-week packaging excellence course covering the entire innovation process, from brand design to scale-up and validation
- Delivered training globally to packaging development teams, ensuring uniform capability uplift
Integrated leadership and teamwork development
3. Real-world application:
- Provided immersive, project-based learning, where participants worked on live innovation challenges
- Enabled delegates to immediately apply new knowledge in their work environments
- Embedded a more holistic and inclusive approach to packaging innovation
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