At Veeva Consumer Products, we understand that quality is the bedrock of your brand’s reputation and growth. For industry leaders like Unilever, achieving consistent, superior quality across a vast global network is a monumental task. But as they’ve shown, it’s a challenge that can be turned into a distinct competitive advantage

Unilever, a company serving over 3.4 billion consumers daily across 190+ countries, recognized that maintaining “unmissably superior” product quality required more than just compliance. They needed a strategic, technology-driven approach. That’s why they partnered with Veeva Consumer Products, implementing Veeva Quality Cloud to revolutionize their quality management.

The Challenge: Overcoming Legacy Limitations

Like many consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies, Unilever faced significant hurdles with their legacy systems:

  • Limited Visibility: Scattered data across multiple platforms hindered real-time tracking and risk assessment.
  • Slow Decision-Making: Manual processes delayed product releases and incident resolutions.
  • Collaboration Barriers: Disparate systems and regional variations impeded cross-functional teamwork.
  • Operational Inefficiencies: Excessive time spent on manual documentation and reporting.

Unilever knew that incremental improvements wouldn’t suffice. They needed a digital-first, enterprise-wide transformation to make quality proactive, data-driven, and scalable.

The Solution: Veeva Quality Cloud – A Unified Digital Platform

Unilever’s vision for quality transformation became a reality with Veeva Quality Cloud. This unified platform consolidated quality documents, data, processes, and people, enabling them to:

1. Achieve End-to-End Visibility:

  • Consolidated over 10+ fragmented legacy systems into a single cloud-based solution.
  • Empowering 22,000+ users, including external partners, with real-time transparency.
  • Standardizing quality processes across all regions and manufacturing sites.
  • Improving collaboration between internal teams, suppliers, and contract manufacturers.
  • Increased operational efficiency, reducing complexity and IT maintenance costs.
Unilever Customer Spotlight image

“Data is one of the biggest elements defining the destination and the speed of this transformation journey. The more data, the more the cleanness of the data that you have, the better.”

Ahmed Maklad, Global Head of Quality Digital Transformation at Unilever

2. Automate Core Quality Processes:

  • Digitized and automated 16+ key quality workflows, including document management, non-conformances, CAPA, audits, supplier quality, and risk management.
  • Achieved a 40% increase in operational efficiency.
  • Accelerating issue resolution and reducing cycle times.
  • Enhancing compliance and traceability for better governance.

3. Drive Proactive Continuous Improvement:

  • Integrating AI-powered analytics to shift from reactive to proactive quality management.
  • Reduced quality incidents by 30% through data-driven insights.
  • Enabling faster root cause analysis with real-time monitoring and automated alerts.
  • Strengthening supplier risk management with data-driven audits and material inspection plans.

The Result: Quality as a Strategic Advantage

By embracing Veeva Quality Cloud, Unilever has transformed quality from a compliance requirement to a strategic advantage, resulting in:

  • Enhanced product quality and consumer trust.
  • Improved operational efficiency and reduced costs.
  • Stronger supplier relationships and risk mitigation.
  • A foundation for AI powered predictive quality.

The Future: AI-Powered Predictive Quality

Unilever’s journey doesn’t end here. With a robust digital foundation in place, they’re now leveraging AI for predictive quality management. By harnessing real-time data, they’re moving towards proactive and prescriptive actions, further enhancing efficiency and ensuring consistent product excellence.

Customer Spotlights

Learn more about how we’re helping customers bring trusted products to market faster in, and across, key consumer products industries.

veeva logo