Forecast & Demand planning with greater accuracy
Slim4 from Slimstock employs state-of-the-art forecasting and supply chain tools to ensure forecast accuracy. Along with the below features, every Slimstock client is fully supported by a local team who speaks their language, and has access to global customer support so help is always available.
Demand Profiling
Each item in your assortment is unique. With the capability to analyze demand patterns on an SKU level, Slim4 builds specific demand profiles so that the right forecasting models are applied to your assortment.
Demand profiling in Slim4 includes:
- Analysis of demand at an SKU, product group, location or channel level
- Analysis of total sales volumes, frequency of sales, sales quantities, and individual transactions
- Factoring in metrics such as emerging trends, seasonality, and volatility
Management by Exception
Even within product groups, items can have unique behavior. Management by exception in Slim4 provides your supply chain team with another dimension of control for creating accurate forecasts with data down to the SKU level.
Management by exception in Slim4 includes:
- 20 different exceptions our consultants can help you define and tailor responses for
- Highlighting items that need the most attention and/or can’t be ordered automatically
- Automated notifications for items that need special attention
Complete Product Lifecycle Management
Forecasting new items and those at end of life can be extremely difficult. Slim4 is built to accurately manage items throughout their entire product lifecycle so companies can focus on manufacturing or selling products rather than logistics.
Product lifecycle management in Slim4 includes:
- Building forecasts based on predecessor/ successor product relationships
- Developing seasonal profiles based on product hierarchies
- Increased monitoring during new product introductory phase
Seasonality & trends
Over 50% of inventory has a seasonal demand pattern. Slim4 tracks seasonal changes so that optimal levels of stock are available before, during & after a seasonal uplift, including items with long lead times.
Seasonality and Trend management in Slim4 includes:
- Adjusting seasonal forecasts automatically or manually as needed
- Applying seasonal demand patterns across item types or product hierarchies
- All seasonal demand fluctuations taken into account (not just summer/winter shifts)
Promotions management
Promotions account for up to 40% of overall turnover, so management of promotional items must be rigorous. Too much promotional stock ties up working capital and risks high levels of obsolescence when the promotion ends. Too little promotional stock means lost sales and disappointed customers.
Promotions management in Slim4 includes:
- Continuous monitoring of promotional items to identify over & under-performing lines
- Automatically building stock based on the promotional forecast
- Allocating promotional stock where it’s needed most (shops/ regional warehouses or customer groups)
- Isolating promotional demand to prevent contamination of demand history
Event management
Holidays - such as Christmas, Easter or Halloween - and other special events mean high turnover within a small timeframe. Slim4 gives your planning team the tools they need to realize these opportunities by providing dynamic, accurate inventory data.
Event management in Slim4 includes:
- Pin-pointing a specific day or dates to calculate demand lift before and after an event
- Factoring in shut-down dates
- Automatically applying emerging trends based upon product hierarchy
- Continuous monitoring to identify over & under-performing SKUs
- Automatically building stock based upon the promotional forecast
- Allocating promotional stock where it’s needed most (shops/ regional warehouses or customer groups)
- Isolating promotional demand to prevent contamination of demand history
Production Planning & Bill of Materials (BOM)
When it comes to kitting & assembly, it’s vital that businesses have visibility over demand of all required components whether they’re dependent or independent.
BOM management in Slim4 includes:
- Ordering raw materials and semi-finished components at the optimal stage of production
- Factoring in lead times to minimize risk of bottle necks
- Optimizing batch sizes based on economic order quantity and machine conversion costs
Aggregation and Disaggregation of Demand
Slim4 analyzes data via aggregation and disaggregation, from both from the bottom-up and the top-down. This provides insights on statistical patterns, seasonality & forecast changes at multiple levels of hierarchy, ensuring the right optimization tools are applied to your inventory.
Demand aggregation in Slim4 includes:
- Tailored response from Slimstock Consultants based on industry / products and turnover
- Responsive data collection to determine which model is most beneficial for your inventory
Size curve planning
Size curve planning is extremely important for sectors such as fashion, where many products come in a variety of size-color-style combinations and demand can vary by location.
Size curve planning in Slim4 lets includes:
- Use size-curve planning at the lowest possible level, i.e. on size-color-style basis for each item at each location
- Compare sales price against retail price for each transaction, and determine if the size-curve was used
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