Edgewell Personal Care Hong Kong Ltd

“GS1 HK is professional in delivering the solution and advising the industry best practice to us. The ezTRADE Gateway solution brings significant uplift to our supply chain efficiency, so we can fulfill customer’s order in a more timely and organised manner.” Chloe Tang, Supply Chain Supervisor Taiwan and HK

Background

Edgewell manages an extensive retail partners’ network in Hong Kong for its plethora of personal care products, handling more than 500 purchasing orders (PO) from health & beauty chains, pharmacies, supermarkets, e-tailers every month. Until a few months ago, Edgewell had to validate the large number of POs by eyeball review to ensure details like pricing, unit of measure (UOM) are accurate. They also needed to send paper invoice to individual customer on monthly basis by mail or email.

Clearly such process was not only time-consuming, but was also prone to human errors sometimes. The extended PO handling procedure would cause delay in product shipment occasionally, affecting the on-shelf availability at the retail.

Solutions

As business continues to grow, Edgewell decided to adopt GS1 HK’s ezTRADE Gateway solution to automate its procurement and invoicing system. Based on GS1 EANCOM/EDIFACT standard, the B2B e-commerce platform has enabled Edgewell and its trade partners to issue and transmit electronic POs/invoices with ease.

Integrated into the company’s backend ERP system for validation of content, ezTRADE greatly speeds up the information exchange using electronic channel, ensuring a smooth day-to-day operation. The platform helps Edgewell staff save 5 minutes to handle each piece of PO or invoice, enhancing much efficiency. Minimising the manual inspection of the documents, the potential error is greatly reduced with improved data accuracy.

The platform also streamlines the work process by consolidating the POs in a systematic way for better scheduling of shipments to customers. As the fulfillment process improves, it helps accelerate the revenue collection process as well, boosting better cash flow for the company.     

Benefits

Edgewell enjoys the following benefits upon ezTRADE Gateway adoption:

• Shorten 5-min for handling each PO or invoice, greatly improving efficiency
• Reduce manual error and increase data accuracy 
• Optimise delivery arrangement and ensure on-shelf inventory for clients
• Enhancing cash flow by speeding up invoicing process
   

About Company

Edgewell Personal Care has been on the leading edge of personal care. The history of their brands can be dated back to 1910, when Wilkinson Sword developed the world’s first cutthroat razor. Today, the company’s portfolio of over 20 brands touches lives in more than 50 countries, including Schick, Playtex, Hawaiian Tropic, Banana Boat, Bulldog, etc.