Actona Company improves efficiency to focus more time on creating value

Actona Company is a Danish business unlike any other: in 35 years, the business has grown from a single small retail store to become one of the world’s leading suppliers of furniture.

With 1200 employees, factories in both Eastern Europe and Asia and an extensive customer base encompassing retailers in over 90 countries, inventory management has always been the central focus of the company. With Slim4, Actona Company has increased their service level and can now focus more time on finding more ways to add further value within the company.

Focus on value creation

The decision to implement Slim4 at Actona Company was mainly based on the need to identify and manage the most challenging products and categories more effectively rather than reducing their stock value. Søren Damgaard, Commercial Director explains: “Previously, we invested the same amount of time across all articles and categories. However, this was simply not optimal. With Slim4, we have become highly efficient in identifying the products we need to pay extra attention to. Our purchasers are now able to prioritise their effort and focus more of their time working on the areas which create the most value as well as increase the service level”

Through comparing the amount of time and effort required to plan both before and after Slim4 was successfully implemented, the progress is already evident after just one year of utilising the solution. “In comparison to our previous system, it requires about 30-40% less time to complete the same kinds of tasks” states Søren Damgaard. Furthermore, through utilising Slim4, the purchasing department at Actona has also eliminated the typical mistakes which were often made before.

Fact-based decisions with Slim4

Actona Company’s success is largely due to the employees’ passion and knowledge about the furniture industry. Given that Slim4 is based on facts, the team at Actona Company can be confident that they are making the right decisions.

Dorte Bakgaard, Operations Manager at Actona Company, adds: “One of the biggest benefits of Slim4 for us is the solution’s management by exception approach. Slim4 alerts us as soon as something differs from the norm and with this insight we now have a greater window of opportunity on which to manage potential issues. Thanks to these early warnings, for example, we can modify an order or change which products should be used to fill a container shipment.”

With Slim4, Actona Company can quickly and easily identify the products that require special attention and take action accordingly. This in turn has helped mitigate the business’ exposure to risk.

Quick & painless implementation

As with the introduction of any new IT system, Actona Company emphasised that the implementation of Slim4 should take place with the fewest possible risks and disruptions to their daily business in regards to the use and efficiency of their ERP system. However, the Actona Company were satisfied by the extensive number of customer references available: “Before we took the final decision, we visited one of the companies that were already using Slim4. Given the positive feedback we received regarding the successful implementation process of Slim4, we finally found peace in our mind” says Søren Damsgaard.

Susanne Prentow, Slim4 system owner, continues: “Slimstock handled the implementation very professionally and everything from testing to training was conducted according to the time schedule. The corporation between our own IT department and the team at Slimstock has worked perfectly”.