That’s a wrap – 5 top takeaways from our UK Customer Day

1) Empower your people to drive growth

While technology is increasingly pivotal in supply chain planning, Dave Food , Lecturer at the University of Warick, took to the stage to reinforce that successful transformation also depends on investing in people.

As businesses grow, the need for skilled teams becomes more pressing. Therefore, upskilling your people to use technology effectively and fostering a culture of collaboration were essential takeaways from his session.

2) Sustainability & Financial performance must go hand in hand

It’s impossible to talk about growth without thinking about profitability. But where does sustainability fit into this equation?

During our panel discussion, a question from the audience raised an interesting debate around how businesses can balance growth objectives against the need to employ more sustainable business practices. As sustainability emerges as a top boardroom priority, our panellists offered real-world examples of how they have tackled waste to achieve significant cost reductions and improve cash flow.

Deloitte ’s Sophia Karanicholas and Severio Mitrani took this a step further, revealing how working capital optimisation offers the cheapest and most effective way to unlock growth. With a focus on driving process improvement throughout the inventory cycle, the presentation left the audience with new ideas to improve working capital by minimising inventory without sacrificing sales or service levels.

3) Bridge the experience gap with technology

Adopting advanced forecasting models and AI-driven tools can lead to more accurate demand predictions, optimised supply chain planning, and better decision-making. However, throughout the event, our line-up of expert speakers highlighted some intriguing examples of how new technology is helping to remove some of the barriers to profitable growth.

As Justin Ashton, Supply Chain Manager at Roper Rhodes , demonstrated, AI supports his team in their day-to-day tasks, assisting with everything from creating more robust demand forecasts to enabling more effective communication with supply chain partners.

4) Success starts with a winning mindset

We often discuss the importance of people, processes and technology working in unity. But it is easy to overlook the importance of creating the right mindset.

At Slimstock’s Customer Day, attendees heard from Hugo Mitchell-Heggs , Founder of Slimstock’s latest charity partner, HMS Oardacious . Hugo shared his team’s record-breaking journey to become the first Royal Navy and fastest military crew to complete the “World’s Toughest Row” voyaging across 3,000 miles of the Atlantic.

Battling sleep deprivation, salt sores, and extreme conditions, the crew relied on mental resilience and adaptability to succeed. Hugo’s inspiring story highlighted the critical importance of mindset, offering valuable insights into overcoming challenges in both physical and professional landscapes – a lesson that resonates with many in the supply chain community!

Click here to learn more about HMS Oardacious.

5) Let’s build a future together

As we look ahead to 2025 and beyond, everything we do at Slimstock is driven by a commitment to empowering our customer community to stay ahead.

Explaining this focus on customer excellence, Daan Majoor , CTO at Slimstock, took to the stage to share how the needs of our customer community are driving rapid advancements throughout our platform. Our CEO, Eric van Dijk , reinforced this message, highlighting the importance of the UK customer community in shaping Slimstock’s vision.

Final thoughts on a fantastic day

As the go-to company for companies and people that want to understand supply chain planning better, events like our Customer Day, which brings our community together, are at the heart of what we do.

We would like to extend a huge thank you to our speakers for sharing their knowledge and expertise. And a special thanks to our amazing customers that came from far and wide to make this event possible!

By Jenny Lowrie