Kimberly-Clark’s acquisition of Safeskin Corporation was part of their strategic plan to grow their healthcare sector. K-C wanted to provide disposable apparel from head to toe, and Safeskin’s latex and synthetic gloves completed the outfit. As you’d expect, K-C’s supply chain needed adjustments, and Safeskin had to be completely integrated into the K-C account, not only from a product line perspective but also from a systems, building location and process perspective. It had to fit like…well…like a glove.

And, DSC Logistics was the perfect partner to ensure this perfect fit. Because we managed both the Safeskin and K-C businesses before the acquisition, we had specific knowledge of both operational and customer requirements. We made sure that best practices in each business were merged.

Our teams collaborated with K-C teams to identify and address any systems issues, review and streamline processes, identify and incorporate customer requirements and share and enhance product handling. Our engineering team designed an operational layout that optimized storage and created picking efficiencies with the combined product lines.

Some of the Safeskin item numbers were actually duplicate numbers for K-C products. After identifying those items, we developed a plan to re-code the existing inventory and assign new numbers. Plus, we made programming changes from an EDI perspective to accept both Safeskin and K-C codes. All Safeskin product was lot code tracked through the system. We modified operational processes while K-C made programming changes to accommodate this requirement.

Safeskin product was produced and immediately shipped “on hold” from Thailand and Malaysia. Often, product remained “on hold” upon receipt and was subject to FDA inspection once received in our Logistics Centers. Our expertise in handling this complex hold/release process was critical since it was new to K-C.

We treated this integration as a start-up and allocated management support, operational strength and project planning to make sure the integration was executed flawlessly. As the Kimberly-Clark and Safeskin experience shows, DSC’s process approach gives us a template for managing companies in acquisition mode or acquiring a new product line. We know how to make it all fit.