Table of contents
Table of contents- Tackling automotive supply chain challenges with Slim4: case study insights
- Automotive supply chain challenges and how Slim4 responds
- Slim4’s core solutions for automotive supply chains
- Automotive success stories powered by Slimstock
- Why automotive businesses choose Slimstock
- Ready to take control of your automotive supply chain?
Overview
The automotive aftermarket faces extreme complexity: thousands of parts, volatile demand, long lead times and high service expectations. This blog explores how Slim4 helps businesses improve forecasting, optimise inventory, increase availability and reduce working capital, supported by real-world automotive success stories.
The automotive aftermarket operates in one of the most demanding supply chain environments. Thousands of references, unpredictable demand patterns, long lead times and high customer service expectations all collide in a sector where availability is non-negotiable and excess stock quickly erodes margins.
From fast-moving consumables to slow-moving, long-tail spare parts, automotive businesses must continuously balance availability, cost and complexity. This is where Slim4, Slimstock’s supply chain planning platform, plays a critical role helping automotive organisations regain control, improve service levels and reduce working capital without compromising customer satisfaction.
Below, we explore the core supply chain challenges faced by the automotive sector and how Slim4 addresses them in practice, supported by real customer success stories.
Automotive supply chain challenges and how Slim4 responds
Managing demand volatility across thousands of parts
Demand in the automotive sector is anything but stable. Seasonal patterns, ageing vehicle fleets, product substitutions and the growing impact of electric vehicles all influence consumption behaviour. On top of this, many parts show intermittent or highly irregular demand.
Slim4 applies advanced demand forecasting and exception-based planning to distinguish genuine demand signals from noise. By using multiple forecasting models, product segmentation and lifecycle logic, planners gain clarity over which items need attention and which can be managed automatically.
Balancing availability and inventory investment
Customers expect immediate availability, even for low-demand or niche parts. However, carrying excessive stock ties up capital and increases the risk of obsolescence, especially as models evolve and references multiply.
Slim4 enables differentiated service level policies by product group, location and demand behaviour. This allows automotive businesses to maintain high availability where it matters most, while reducing overstock and slow-moving inventory across the long tail.
Long lead times and supplier complexity
Many automotive spare parts are sourced internationally, often with lead times ranging from weeks to several months. Combined with supplier reliability issues and minimum order constraints, replenishment decisions become increasingly complex.
Slim4 provides full visibility of real lead times, supplier performance and future purchase requirements. This allows teams to anticipate risks, optimise order quantities and negotiate more effectively with suppliers using accurate, data-driven insights.
Multi-location and multi-level distribution networks
Automotive supply chains frequently operate across central warehouses, regional distribution centres and local branches. Coordinating stock across these layers without losing visibility or control is a major challenge.
Slim4 supports multi-echelon planning, giving organisations end-to-end transparency across the entire network. This ensures stock is positioned in the right place, at the right time, reducing unnecessary transfers, transport costs and service disruptions.
Slim4’s core solutions for automotive supply chains
Slim4 provides a comprehensive set of capabilities designed specifically to address the complexity and operational pressures of automotive and spare parts supply chains.
- Demand forecasting module: Uses advanced analytics, AI and machine learning to predict demand across fast-moving, seasonal and slow-moving parts. Forecasts take into account vehicle parc evolution, seasonality, demand intermittency and product lifecycle effects.
- Demand planning module: Aligns customer demand with operational and logistical capacity, ensuring high availability across thousands of references while avoiding unnecessary stock build-up.
- Purchase forecasting: Translates demand signals into accurate replenishment plans across the supply network, supporting long lead times, supplier constraints and import flows while reducing both stockouts and excess inventory.
- Service level management: Dynamically defines and applies differentiated service levels by product group, location and demand behaviour — balancing customer availability expectations with inventory investment.
- Economic Order Quantity (EOQ) management: Calculates optimal order sizes based on forecasted demand, supplier constraints and target service levels, helping automotive businesses minimise ordering, transport and holding costs.
- Order Generator (OG): Automates and optimises order creation by consolidating requirements across suppliers and locations. OG considers real lead times, minimum order constraints and replenishment priorities, enabling planners to work by exception rather than manually.
- Product Life Cycle (PLC) management: Supports parts from introduction to end-of-life, ensuring new references are planned correctly while reducing the risk of obsolescence for discontinued or declining products.
- Multireference and equivalent parts management: Manages multiple references for the same component, improving stock visibility and reducing service errors across complex automotive assortments.
- Order Generator (OG): advanced ordering intelligence: The Order Generator is a core capability for automotive users, simplifying complex ordering scenarios by:
- Optimising container and shipment filling, reducing transport costs and improving logistics efficiency.
- Meeting minimum order values and supplier conditions, ensuring cost-effective purchasing.
- Anticipating future planned demand, enabling proactive replenishment and higher availability, even with long lead times.
Automotive success stories powered by Slimstock
Let’s take a look at how Slim4 helped three automotive companies overcome their obstacles.
Implementos S.A. – Aligning growth with supply chain precision
“With Slimstock’s support, we really buy what we sell and have the right stock, in the right place and at the right time.”
Juan José Bonilla
Corporate Logistics Manager, Implementos S.A
Implementos S.A. has built a strong presence in the automotive spare parts market, operating more than 30 stores in Chile, alongside branches in Peru and Spain, and extending its reach across Latin America. As competition intensified and customer expectations evolved, the company recognised the need to modernise its planning processes to maintain high service levels and support continued expansion. To drive this transformation, Implementos partnered with Slimstock and implemented the Slim4 planning platform as part of a long-term strategic initiative.
The primary objectives were to better synchronise supply and demand, improve operational efficiency and reduce the capital tied up in inventory. Implementos prioritised improving product availability without increasing stock levels and establishing a more structured, data-driven decision-making environment.
Since adopting Slim4 in 2016, the company has seen sustained improvements year on year. Product availability increased by around 10% annually, while the business maintained strong growth of approximately 20% each year without expanding its inventory footprint. This combination of higher availability and controlled stock levels has also driven a notable improvement in GMROI (gross margin return on investment).
Beyond the metrics, Implementos’ teams now spend less time on manual tasks and more on strategic activities, such as refining product matrices and setting appropriate stock policies. With Slimstock’s ongoing support, Implementos continues to build supply chain capabilities that underpin its international expansion ambitions.
Geevers Auto Parts – Reclaiming control and reducing excess stock
“More than €2 million worth of surplus stock has now been cleared and we have an organisation that continues to improve itself.”
Edwin Karelsen
Manager Purchasing, Geevers Auto Parts
Geevers Auto Parts, a Dutch supplier serving automotive body repair shops across the Benelux, has utilised Slimstock’s platform for over six years. Over time, however, organisational changes and staff turnover eroded the team’s planning knowledge, and the company was no longer exploiting the full potential of its supply chain tools. As a result, warehouses became congested with surplus stock, reducing visibility and efficiency.
To tackle these challenges, Geevers launched a comprehensive improvement programme focused on reinvigorating planning processes and rebuilding internal expertise. Key to this was re-analysing the product portfolio using refined classification schemes and rebasing service level strategies to better reflect true demand patterns.
The results were significant: over €2 million of excess inventory was eliminated, stock availability improved by around 10%, and the reliance on cross-docking decreased by a similar margin, freeing up working capital and reducing operational strain.
Importantly, Slimstock’s expert coaching helped embed knowledge within the team, ensuring that planners now actively monitor performance and adjust decisions based on up-to-date insights. The company has not only restored control over its inventory but has created a culture of continuous improvement.
Alliance Automotive – Driving standardisation and inventory efficiency
“We have seen significant improvements since the rollout. In two years, we’ve increased our holdings by 10 points and reduced our stock value by about a million euros.”
Thomas Doublet
Head of Procurement, Alliance Automotive
Alliance Automotive Group is a major automotive aftermarket supplier in Europe, serving a broad customer base with a complex array of parts and accessories. Faced with rapid growth and a highly varied SKU portfolio, the company recognised that legacy, manual planning methods were no longer fit for purpose at scale. Alliance launched a supply chain transformation initiative built around Slimstock’s Slim4 platform to standardise planning processes and support future expansion.
Before implementation, the business relied heavily on manual expertise and intuition, which limited its ability to manage inventory consistently across locations and product lines. With Slim4, Alliance introduced robust, data-driven planning that enabled better coordination between forecasting, replenishment and inventory control.
The impact of this shift was evident within two years: product availability increased by 10 percentage points, enhancing service delivery to customers, while stock value was reduced by approximately €1 million, lowering working capital without sacrificing performance.
These gains have laid a foundation for further growth, with Slim4 now deployed across multiple regional platforms within the Group. Looking forward, Alliance plans to extend the solution to all its remaining sites, confident that a standardised planning approach will continue to support operational excellence and long-term competitiveness.
Why automotive businesses choose Slimstock
Automotive organisations choose Slimstock not only for its powerful platform, but for its deep sector expertise. With hundreds of automotive customers worldwide, Slimstock understands the realities of managing multireference assortments, long-tail complexity and demanding service requirements.
Slim4 supports automotive businesses by:
- Improving forecast accuracy for both fast and slow-moving parts.
- Reducing excess stock and obsolescence risk.
- Strengthening supplier collaboration and replenishment planning.
- Delivering higher service levels with lower inventory investment.
In a sector where availability drives loyalty and efficiency drives profitability, Slim4 provides the structure and intelligence needed to perform consistently, even as complexity increases.
Ready to take control of your automotive supply chain?
Whether you operate in wholesale, distribution or aftermarket services, the challenges facing automotive supply chains are unlikely to ease. However, with the right planning foundation, they can be transformed into a competitive advantage.
Discover how Slim4 can help your automotive business plan smarter, reduce risk and improve performance, today and in the future.
