Kao Corporation and Lion Corporation have begun the two-way transportation project between respective operating sites aimed at optimizing both of its overall supply chains. This is part of the Smart Logistics Service project being carried out as part of the Strategic Innovation Promotion Program (SIP).
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Under this initiative, which is led by Japan's Cabinet Office, the Distribution Economics Institute of Japan has proposed possible combinations of the companies' separate one-way transportation operations to turn into two-way systems based on transportation data provided by participating household consumer product manufacturers.
Based on this report, Kao and Lion have combined Kao's transportation operations connecting its Kawasaki Plant (Kanagawa Prefecture) and Sakaide Logistics Center (Kagawa Prefecture) with Lion's transportation operations connecting the Lion Chemical Sakaide Factory and Lion's logistics centers in Kazo (Saitama Prefecture), Kashiwa (Chiba prefecture) and Sagamihara (Kanagawa Prefecture) to realize two-way transportation.
Compared with the previous transportation methods, the initiative has resulted in shorter empty running distances for the trucks used, and the company estimates combined reductions of 45% in CO2 emissions and 23% in transportation expenses.
In addition, Kao and Lion are collaborating on the recycling of film packaging toward the realization of plastic packaging resource circulation in society. This initiative is also aimed at helping to solve environmental problems and proactively working together to reduce the environmental burden across product life cycles.
