At Kimberly-Clark, we've learned that Supplier Diversity is simply good business, adding value to our customers, shoppers and users, our products and our company. Demographically, our world is changing. We're embracing those changes to ensure that our supplier base more accurately reflects our retail customers and consumers, enabling us to meet and exceed their expectations.
We actively solicit minority and women-owned businesses to provide them with opportunities to furnish us with a variety of products and services. Our company works with the National Minority Supplier Development Council to locate qualified suppliers and support the Council's mission. As a result, we have access to an enriched pool of suppliers who are competitive, innovative and focused on providing solutions for their customers.
SOURCING CONSIDERATIONS
Sourcing decisions will vary depending on individual business needs, potential competitive advantages and underlying business risks. Key considerations include the ability of a supplier to:
- Provide technology that offers unique protective features and can be the basis for innovations in our products and processes.
- Provide adequate capacity and flexibility to satisfy the range of our defined needs without interruption or dependency on K-C for long-term contracts or capital commitments.
- Continuously minimize conformance variability.
- Provide the best value.
- Be a trusted partner in helping us produce products that are market leaders in quality and value.
- Provide diversity to our supplier base to match more closely to our consumer base.
K-C is committed to attracting and retaining the highest quality diverse suppliers available to help in the production and development of first-of-a-kind innovations that meet the unmet essential needs of our customers, shoppers and users. To learn more about K-C's Supplier Diversity program contact us at supplierdiversity@kcc.com.
SUPPLIER RECOGNITION AWARDS
The Supplier Recognition Awards are an additional incentive for Kimberly-Clark suppliers to find ways to drive value to K-C. To identify our most valuable suppliers, a recognition committee considers those receiving annual performance evaluation scores above an agreed threshold and feedback from buyers and other business contacts on the unique value each supplier delivered during the year. After a calibration process, the committee selects suppliers that have gone "above and beyond" and were clearly distinguishable from other very capable suppliers.
Suppliers are selected for a variety of standout reasons, including:
- Delivering unique technological advances
- Creating and delivering innovative solutions
- Providing cost effective and responsive supply chains
- Offering industry leading sustainability opportunities
In all cases, our best-of-the-best suppliers clearly demonstrate a willingness to share and use their full organizational knowledge and potential to drive value and create competitive advantages for Kimberly-Clark … which makes good business sense for our company and our consumers.
