Emuca Customer Case

Committed to providing a fast and reliable service as it sources from a global supplier base, Emuca faces significant supply chain challenges. To overcome the complexity of its operation, the furniture design company adopted the Slim4 platform to optimise its end-to-end supply chain.

“Ensuring high product availability is paramount because if we can not satisfy a customer’s needs, they will simply turn to a competitor instead. With the Slim4 platform, we have reached an On Time In Full (OTIF) order ratio of over 90%. That is a remarkable 13 percentage points higher than before, all while slashing our inventory by 40%,” highlights Pablo Pons, Operations Director at Emuca.

With the implementation of Slimstock’s supply chain planning platform, the improved availability has also helped to reduce lost sales due to stock-outs from 160,000 euros per day to around 40,000 euros.

“The impact of saving 1 million euros in inventory is equivalent to selling an additional 4 million euros.” Pablo Pons | Operations Director at Emuca

€9 million reduction in inventory

Emuca highly value the exception-based alerts provided by Slim4, which help the planning team detect potential issues before they arise. The team also noted the platform’s advanced reporting capabilities and user-friendly interface.

“Since implementing Slim4, the company has reduced its inventory by 9 million euros. If we consider our margin, the impact of saving 1 million euros in inventory is equivalent to selling an additional 4 million euros. The impact on our business is therefore huge,” highlights Pons.

From large manufacturers and wholesalers to retail

The varied nature of Emuca’s clientele poses a significant challenge, with over 5,000 customers ranging from large-scale furniture manufacturers, wholesalers, and professionals to Amazon sellers and large specialist retail outlets.

This complexity amplifies within Emuca’s supply chain, where demand stems from companies with detailed supply requirements to local hardware stores and drop shippers. Compounding this challenge is the broad assortment of over 9,000 products, each exhibiting distinct demand behaviours and characteristics.

Slimstock has helped Emuca overcome these challenges in several ways. “The Slim4 platform monitors our demand forecasts and safety stock levels daily to provide us with optimal order advice, fine-tuned around the specific characteristics of each product in our assortment,” says Pons.

Furthermore, Slim4 enables Emuca to adopt a tailored inventory management strategy, considering the strategic importance of each product based on turnover and rotation. As a result, Emuca can maintain higher service levels for the products that matter most while balancing investment of working capital in the items that form the business’ long tail.

Emuca has a turnover of around 100 million euros and specialises in the distribution of furniture assembly accessories such as handles, hinges, guides and screws. The company produces its products through a distributed manufacturing model in which suppliers oversee production using Emuca’s moulds, designs and patents.