NP Nilssen Customer Story

For over 100 years, NP Nilsson has supplied the construction industry with an extensive range of building materials, tools, machinery, doors, windows, paints, and fastenings. As a business committed to setting the industry standard in product availability and reliability, unpredictable lead times and ongoing market disruptions have added significant complexity to NP Nilsson’s supply chain.

Martin Erming, CIO & Supply Chain Manager at NP Nilsson, explains, “The lasting impact of Covid, rising electricity prices and ongoing supply chain disruption have made it progressively more challenging and expensive to sustain our exemplary service levels.”

In a market characterised by unpredictable demand, the building materials specialist recognised an opportunity to strengthen its market-leading position by investing in advanced supply chain technology to modernise its end-to-end operation.

In search of a solution to streamline its supply chain processes and achieve a healthier inventory balance, NP Nilsson opted for Slim4, Slimstock’s advanced supply chain planning platform.

Challenges and goals

For NP Nilsson, it was vital the supply chain transformation helped improve visibility and minimise supply chain costs while allowing the planning team to anticipate last-minute orders sooner.

Martin Erming explains, “We previously developed our own inventory control system; however, our processes were heavily dependent on the knowledge and experience of individual users. Since the branches were responsible for planning inventory requirements, ensuring the right inventory levels at each location was often challenging.”

The CIO and supply chain manager continues: “To leverage the benefits of a purpose-built supply chain solution, we made the strategic decision to collaborate with Slimstock. Our objectives for this transformation were twofold: to inform assortment decisions with data-driven insights and to empower our people with the knowledge and tools required to deliver better business outcomes.”

Results

After adopting Slimstock’s award-winning supply chain planning platform, Slim4, NP Nilsson has accelerated its transformation process, achieving excellent results:

• Centralised planning to improve efficiency
• Increased service levels to deliver a superior customer experience
• Improved supply chain visibility and control, reducing operational costs

Highlighting the impact of a more efficient and consistent planning process, Martin Erning comments, “Since we started with Slim4, we have experienced significant growth with a 30% to 40% increase in revenue while keeping a tight grip on our inventory. This simply would not have been possible before.”

Centralising planning decisions

Martin Erming explains, “Adopting the Slim4 platform has allowed us to centralise our supply chain planning process fully. With its intuitive design, powerful planning capabilities and the continued support of Slimstock’s team, our entire planning process is managed entirely by just two employees. By focusing our planning process this way, supply chain decisions are now driven by experts with the time, data and skills to drive the best results.”

Furthermore, Slim4’s agility in handling supply chain information has empowered NP Nilsson to navigate changes in lead times effectively and enhance delivery accuracy.

Martin Erming notes, “The expertise we have gained, combined with Slim4’s complete suite of planning tools, has enabled us to make smarter supply chain decisions, which have, in turn, helped us to reduce operational costs. Furthermore, by embracing the AI-powered forecasting capabilities of Slimstock’s platform, we can anticipate market trends and capitalise on them sooner.”

Next steps

The partnership with Slimstock has helped NP Nilsson to establish a solid foundation for continued growth. As the business pursues further performance improvements, the next phase of the transformation project will focus on enhancing control over obsolete and slow-moving stock.

“Slimstock’s expertise and professionalism throughout the implementation process were pivotal in our transformative journey. We are thrilled to count on their support as we embark on the next phase of supply chain optimisation,” concludes Martin Erming.