Manutan Customer Story

It all started for Manutan in 1966 when André Guichard suggested to his son, Jean-Pierre, that they create the first catalogue sales company in France. Over the years, the company has become one of the European leaders in B2B E-Commerce, offering a range of office products encompassing packaging, storage, workshop tools, outdoor, health, hygiene, and catering products.

The company has 27 subsidiaries in 17 countries and supports more than 700,000 references worldwide. Managing its supply chain and, specifically, its inventory levels has become increasingly pressing.

To enhance its operations, Julien Poisson, European Demand & Replenishment Director at Manutan, implemented a new management strategy to guide his team to operational excellence. The challenge was understanding and aligning the three essential pillars of their organisational structure: the supply chain team, processes, and the underpinning technologies.

The ultimate goal was to increase service levels, reduce stock value, and enhance alignment throughout the business. After exploring the market, Manutan decided to implement Slim4, a robust AI-enabled supply chain planning tool that offers the flexibility to support the business’ growth.

Manutan’s strategy: embrace technology

To optimise Slim4, Manutan collaborated closely with the Slimstock team. Initially, they verified the essential data. Subsequently, they focused on training the team to utilise the tool effectively. Finally, after a comprehensive review of Slim4, Manutan integrated new rules and functionalities defined by the business. This collaborative approach ensured that Slim4 supports Manutan’s specific needs and objectives.

The intuitive design of the Slim4 platform, along with the ease of having all the supplier information in one place and accessible on a single screen, played crucial roles in the project’s success. The flexibility of the Slim4 platform also allowed the tool to be fine-tuned around Manutan’s business rules.

Results

During Slim4’s adoption, the challenge was to optimise service levels while reducing inventory, managing erratic demand, and optimising the planning team’s time.

The business saw impressive results:

• Service levels increased from 92% to 97% while reducing stock coverage by two months
• A significant timesaving for the planning team, allowing more focus on strategic tasks
• A decrease in stock coverage to 2 months

Julien Poisson explains, “We managed to save our teams 45 minutes per order; they now have more time to concentrate on our strategic mission”.

Manutan’s next mission

The company’s next objective is to embrace further Slim4’s AI and Machine Learning capabilities to optimise the quality and precision of its demand forecasts. Furthermore, with Slim4 fully adopted within the business, Manutan will collaborate with Slimstock to implement an S&OP process.