EFFICIENT UNIT LOADS - ECR Community

Final Thanks
The European ECR Executive Board (ECR Board) was established to accelerate implementation of ECR within member
companies and across the European grocery industry.
In Autumn 1995, the ECR board commissioned the Efficient Unit Loads project, the third in a series of topics dealing
with the supply side of ECR.
• EDI – Electronic Data Interchange
• ER – Efficient Replenishment
• EUL – Efficient Unit Loads
EUL’s mission was to improve efficiency and effectiveness in current and future supply chains by promoting
harmonisation and integration of transport and storage items and to consider how a European framework for the
development and management of reusable transport and storage items could be established.
A team of manufacturers and retailers was established and A.T. Kearney was selected to support and coach the team
throughout the project.
This report outlines the findings and suggestions to the European grocery industry and to individual companies
seeking insight and direction in their own ECR initiatives.
It has been our great pleasure in contributing to this project and report on the challenging subject of EUL. Efficient
Unit Loads, often mistakenly viewed as a technical and functional issue, are actually of key strategic importance. EUL
are essential to the success of ECR, as they relate, in particular, to the overall physical infrastructure of the supply
chain.
We would like to encourage all team members of the EUL project to continue working together, in the spirit of
cooperation and trust and to actively promote EUL both inside and outside their own company and country.
On behalf of A.T. Kearney we would like to express our special thanks to all project team members, our project
secretary, our co-chairs, our facilitators from the sponsoring organisations, our board mentor and to the whole ECR
Board. They have given us their full support in dealing with this critical and strategically important subject
throughout this project.
H. L. Henner Klein
Vice President and Officer in Charge
A.T. Kearney
Disclaimer
The study in this publication is promoted by the members of ECR Europe and has been made possible, in particular, thanks to the active support of those
companies and organisations which participated in the project work undertaken by the authors and consultants, A.T. Kearney.
However, the ECR Europe member companies, participating companies or organisations, individually or collectively, do not necessarily endorse every
technique, process or principle herein described. Neither the authors, nor any ECR Europe member company or participating company or organisation
individually or collectively accept any responsibility or liability in connection with this publication or the techniques, processes or principles mentioned
herein. The material presented in this booklet is for information purposes only.
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The Efficient Unit Loads Report