FAQs about Slimstock

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Frequently asked questions (FAQs) on Slimstock as an organisation and Slim4 inventory management software.

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About Slimstock

What is Slimstock and how is it related to Slim4?

Slimstock is a global leader in inventory optimization and supply chain planning. Since 1993 we’ve helped over 1500 companies improve service levels, reduce waste and build more resilient supply chains. Our software solution, Slim4, is the engine that drives these results.

How experienced is Slimstock?

For more than 30 years, Slimstock is the market leader in inventory optimisation and supply chain planning. With more than 1500 customers worldwide, our inventory optimisation Slim4 helps businesses improve customer service while simultaneously minimising inventory levels and supply chain costs.

Where is Slimstock located, are you experienced worldwide?

The headquarters is based in Deventer (The Netherlands) and we’re active in 75 countries, with offices in 27 and a global team of 500+ supply chain professionals. Every year, we deliver more than 150 new projects.

How many employees does Slimstock have?

We have more than 500 inventory experts worldwide. This means we are always close to help you get the right inventory at the right place at the right time.

What is Slimstock’s mission and purpose?

By helping planning teams to make more intelligent decisions based on data and reducing time, resource, and talent waste, we assist businesses in creating more robust and sustainable supply chains.

What makes Slimstock unique?

Our success is based on 8 promises that ensure we always deliver value: from guaranteed ROI within 12 months to continuous innovation, free customer training and lasting partnerships.

What kind of results can I expect with Slimstock?

Our customers typically achieve:

  • Up to 50% reduction in waste
  • Higher availability with less stock
  • Lower operational costs
  • ROI in under 12 months

Is Slimstock well-equipped to help me with the implementation?

Yes, our experts will need an approximate 3 to 4 months to implement Slim4 and provide the training before go live can take place. The duration also depends on the complexity of your supply chain. Take into account that implementing inventory management software requires dedication and commitment from the whole organisation for effective results.

Is Slimstock well-equipped to help my employees with training?

We do in-company training for employees under the Slimstock Academy. We also provide a certificate of completion at the end of each training course.

Who are Slimstock’s customers?

We deal with companies of every size. From big businesses to local leaders in industries such as retail, manufacturing, automotive, food and beverage, fashion and healthcare.

Where can I find my local Slimstock office?

You can locate your nearest office or local partner here: Find your local Slimstock office.

 

Slimstock Academy

What is the Slimstock Academy?

The Slimstock Academy is our learning hub designed to help professionals master supply chain and inventory management. To make effective supply chain decisions, your team needs the right knowledge, that’s why we developed the Slimstock Academy. Through a wide range of in-company training, online sessions, open courses, and community events, our Academy provides the tools and knowledge professionals need to turn their business strategy into effective supply chain actions.

Is the Slimstock Academy free for customers?

Yes, our Academy is free for all Slimstock customers.

What kind of training does the Academy offer?

We offer courses on using Slim4, from essential to advanced levels, including refresher courses. In addition, we provide workshops and specialised masterclasses on topics such as demand planning & forecasting, S&OP, inventory optimisation and data analysis.

Do participants receive certification?

Yes. Upon completion of a course, participants receive an official Slimstock Academy Certificate, recognised by supply chain professionals globally.

Is training available in my region or language?

We deliver courses in multiple languages, both online and in-person.

What other kind of resources does Slimstock provide?

Slimstock is a knowledge company that provides supply chain professionals with a variety of resources. In addition to specific webinars on subjects like demand planning, S&OP, obsolescence management, seasonality, exceptions management… There are downloadable guides, eBooks and other free resources available. These tools are intended to keep you aware of the latest advances and industry best practices in supply chain management.

 

Slimstock Solutions

What solutions does Slimstock provide?

Slimstock offers a unified AI-enabled platform to optimise your entire supply chain. Our Slim4 solution covers four main areas:

Which industries and sectors does Slimstock serve?

We support companies across diverse industries including:

And sectors like:

Does Slim4 include industry-specific features?

Yes. Slim4 offers tailored features like size curve planning for fashion, batch and expiry management for food and multi-location planning for distributors.

 

ERP integration

Does Slim4 work with my ERP system?

Slimstock intensively cooperates with ERP suppliers and other partner companies. Combining Slim4 with an ERP system is possible with the certified links that integration partners develop for us. The standard interfaces always work and therefore, no implementation risk is involved.

Which ERP systems can Slim4 integrate with?

Slim4 integrates seamlessly with major ERP systems such as SAP, Oracle, Microsoft Dynamics and Netsuite, among others. The Slim4 platform connects your operational execution with strategic planning, supporting end-to-end supply chain processes. Its intuitive web-based interface and mobile app allow for flexible user experiences, dashboards and real-time collaboration, ensuring your team can adopt and benefit from the system quickly. You can explore more about the Slim4 platform here.

 

Slimstock software – Slim4

Inventory

Why is an online inventory management system better than using spreadsheets?

Excel sheets allow you to change data without any objectivity and using Excel sheets is prone to human errors.  In addition, using Excel for forecasting and demand planning is labour intensive, doesn’t allow you to focus on the right things, and it’s therefore more difficult to achieve the perfect balance between working capital, operating costs and the optimal service level.

Why is an online inventory management system better than using ERP?

An ERP system is a generic system and not specialised in inventory management.  Using an add-on allows you to use the ERP as a source for master data and transactional data, and the inventory management system can be used to do all the calculations from forecasting to purchaseing, leading to exactly the right amount of stock to service your customers.

Where is the Slim4 software based on?

Our vision is that you need to focus on exceptions, that’s why Slim4 is based on a “Management by Exceptions” philosophy. The system will tell you if there is an exception and if it is an urgent and/or important exception. In this way, you can focus on what’s really important.

Does Slim4 provide a dynamic calculation of safety stock?

To provide the desired service level for unexpected demand, the correct buffer (or safety stock) has to be calculated for every product. Slim4’s exceptional capabilities enable businesses to optimise their inventory through regularly:

  • Differentiating service levels and buffer stock, and taking in to account the delivery times, optimal order quantities and ordering times
  • Distinguishing between presentation stock, ring-fenced inventory and all other types of inventory
  • Automatically optimising purchase orders for 1,000s of SKUs across all locations
  • Optimise replenishment based upon dynamic MIN / MAX rules
  • Responding to developments in local demand at both an article and location level
  • Optimise Phase-in and Phase-out of items based upon product lifecycle management

Does Slim4 calculate the optimal order size?

Order sizes have a significant impact on both order and stock costs. Following the formula of Camp, Slim4 calculates the optimal order size based on the average demand, ordering costs, price and inventory costs, as well as several other factors:

  • Order by box, pallet or to fill a truckload
  • Optimised order quantities are driven by forecasts with seasonal influencers taken into account

Does Slim4 help to see what purchase order may be delayed and thus where the action is required?

By calculating optimal purchase orders, companies can increase their profitability. Once an order is placed at a supplier, it’s vital that the right amount is delivered on time. The order book management module within Slim4 is specifically developed to enable companies to know what purchase orders may be delayed and thus where the action is required. Slim4 supports businesses to achieve the following:

  • Gain a clear overview of purchase orders with alerts
  • Distinguish between different types of purchase orders
  • Scheduling future purchase orders and proactively manages with interim change

Does Slim4 select the best supplier, with more sources as a purchasing option?

Often the same article can be ordered from different suppliers. Slim4 can automatically advise and select the most suitable supplier for each order. This saves businesses time and money, but also leads to increased availability.

  • Deal with each supplier’s different price breaks, delivery times and order quantity restrictions
  • Automatically selects the best supplier based on company-specific decision-making rules

Does Slim4 anticipate on special promotions from suppliers?

Some items are available on a seasonal basis during certain periods of the year. Additionally, suppliers periodically offer special promotions or temporary price reductions. Slim4 enables companies to take advantage of this by:

  • Temporarily recalculating economic order quantities based on seasonal availability or price promotions
  • Enabling analysis of special offers from specific suppliers

Can we work in the Cloud with Slim4?

Yes, Slim4 can be installed either in the cloud or on premise. This depends on your company’s preference.

Analytics

Does Slim4 identify the best selling products?

Slim4 tells you on every level (article, product group, category) what the best selling products are.

Does Slim4 identify the best suppliers?

Yes, Slim4 tells you who your best suppliers are on every level.

Does Slim4 identify my best customers?

Yes, Slim4 tells you who your most important customers are, what they bought and when, so you can anticipate their behaviour.

Does Slim4 anticipate on seasonal and trend products?

Did you know that more than 50% of all items have a sort of seasonal demand pattern? So, it is vital that these trends are continuously monitored and the forecasts adjusted accordingly.
Slim4 guarantees an optimal stock level before, during and after a seasonal promotion and for items with long lead times. To this, Slim4 supports powerful forecast options:

  • Option to adjust seasonal forecasts automatically or manually
  • Seasonal demand patterns can be copied from a predecessor or product hierarchies
  • All seasonal demand fluctuations are taken into account (not just summer/winter shifts)

Does Slim4 anticipate on promotions?

Slim4 maximises sales potential while minimising risks through:

  • Continually monitoring promotional items to identify over & underperforming lines
  • Automatically building stock based upon the promotional forecast
  • Enabling easy scaling of underlying locations (shops/ regional warehouses or customer groups) to optimise the allocation of promotional stock
  • Isolating promotional demand to prevent contamination of demand history

Does Slim4 anticipate on new products and end of life items?

Yes, Slim4 helps you to:

  • Build forecasts based upon predecessor/ successor product relationships
  • Develop seasonal profiles based upon product hierarchies
  • Additional responsive during the introductory phase of the product life cycle

How does Slim4 anticipate on new products and end of life items?

Yes, Slim4 helps you to:

  • Build forecasts based upon predecessor/ successor product relationships
  • Develop seasonal profiles based upon product hierarchies
  • Additional responsive during the introductory phase of the product life cycle

How does Slim4 handle Bill of Materials (BOM)?

Slim4 can utilise a comprehensive bill of materials, ensuring:

  • Raw material and semi-finished components are ordered at the optimal moment in the right quantity
  • BOM (Bill of Materials) takes into account the most extended lead time to minimise the risk of bottlenecks

Can Slim4 help me with order forecasting and demand planning?

Slim4 helps you to get the most accurate forecasting and demand planning. We provide an integrated software solution for forecasting, demand planning and inventory control.

Does your forecast consider a whole range of factors, including emerging trends, seasonality and volatility?

Slim4 understands that the demand planning for some products is far more difficult to forecast in comparison to other products.
Slim4 enables businesses to create objective profiles, which ensure to apply only the most appropriate algorithm. This is possible through analysing demand patterns at all levels and taking into account a range of demand metrics. To achieve the best possible forecast, demand profiling within Slim4 is underpinned by:

  • Analysis of demand at an SKU, product group, location or channel level
  • Analysis of total sales volumes, frequency of sales, sales quantities as well as individual transactions.

My business is in fashion. Does Slim4 anticipate on size curve planning?

Size curve planning is fraught with complexity. To maximise margins when an item is in season and to minimise markdown at the end of the season, Slim4’s capabilities enable:

  • Size-curve planning at the lowest possible level: on the size-colour-style basis for every location
  • For every transaction, Slim4 registers the sales price against the retail price as well whether the size curve was intact to optimise future forecasting

Supply chain

Can Slim4 help with optimising the supply chain?

Slim4 ensures optimal stocking decision-making by fully supporting the portfolio & range management process:

  • Make effective stocked/ non-stocked decisions based on the organisation’s specific business rules
  • Collaborate with marketing to optimise assortment decision and prevent excess stock

Does Slim4 provide a solid basis for service level differentiation?

Slim4 supports Service Level Inventory Management and assists businesses with the following capabilities:

  • Automatically sets service levels based upon ABC and the business rules in place
  • Optimise safety stock to achieve the desired service level and thus maintain high standards of availability

Does Slim4 anticipate on Product Life Cycles?

Slim4 helps businesses to support the product life cycle management process:

  • Automatically adopt the inventory strategy based upon the phase in the product life cycle
  • Apply business rules to select either a defensive or aggressive approach during the launch phase
  • Remain responsive and automatically establish a forecast after initial sales of new items
  • Optimise margins and inventory costs for mature items
  • Notify planners when purchases start to fall at the end of the product lifecycle
  • Gain insight into different phase-out scenarios and decrease inventory levels accordingly

Does Slim4 accept business rules for specific environments?

Slim4 is a standard software solution. However, to ensure that day-to-day inventory management processes and decisions align with the overall corporate strategy, businesses rules can be applied to optimise the solution for specific environments. Through utilising business rules:

  • Standardised logic ensures that everyone works in the same way towards the same goal
  • Maximise efficiency through automation based upon if-this-then-that type logic
  • Unlike in ERP systems, parameters can be changed dynamically

Does Slim4 provide customer segmentation?

Purchasing behaviour will differ hugely between different customer groups, and consequently, the importance of each item will vary based on the customer in question. With Slim4, it is possible to not only define A; B & C items but also A, B and C customers:

  • Establish different rules around stocking decisions, safety stock requirements and the need for dual sourcing depending on both the item and customer class
  • Slim4 provides specific exceptions to enable supply chain teams to react to the evolving needs of priority customer immediately

Reporting

Does Slim4 provide reports?

To maximise the efficiency of the planning team, it is vital that everyone has clear insight over their own workload to keep track of the progress as well as what areas require further attention. The intelligent dashboard within Slim4 provides supply chain teams with up-to-date information enabling them to remain proactive and take immediate action when needed:

  • Filter on specific selections to drill down into data and go beyond simple averages to gain greater focus
  • Provide visibility overall primary metrics: availability, stock turn and excess stock

Does Slim4 report up-to-date on every product level I want?

Supply chain teams typically operate in dynamic environments. To ensure management have constant visibility over the performance of their team, Slim4’s powerful web-based reporting capability provides any time access to all key metrics:

  • Most KPI’s shown as per today
  • Analyse stock position both historically and future projections
  • Insight accessible any time online

Does Slim4 offer the option of simulations and scenario planning?

Yes. Deciding how best to meet the needs of your customers is something, which requires considerable thought. Given that there is a range of influences, both internal and external, that can change in the business environment; it’s essential that the impact of these factors on the future stock position be fully understood:

  • Explore impact of changes in service level, order quantity and replenishment cycles
  • Analyse the impact of pursuing an inventory level target

 

Slim4 Investment

What will Slim4 cost?

The costs depend on the complexity of your supply chain and the functionality that you need. Most importantly, we aim to achieve an ROI within a year. We will be able to provide you with an indication of the price after reviewing your company’s requirements.

How much time does our organisation need to invest?

It depends on your needs and the quality of data and commitment of your supply chain team. However, 3 to 4 months is the duration time mostly requiring.

 

Slimstock Support

What support does Slimstock provide?

We offer dedicated customer success, technical support and consultancy for all of our customers. With offices in 27 countries, our support team operate around the clock to keep your Slim4 environment performing at its peak.

Is post-implementation support included?

Yes. After go-live, our team continues to work with you to ensure ongoing success and continuous improvement.

Does Slimstock provide ongoing consultancy?

Yes. Beyond technical support, our consultants offer guidance and best practices to help you continuously optimise performance.

What is Slimstock’s customer retention rate?

Our 96% customer retention rate reflects our long-term commitment and the tangible value we deliver year after year.

 

Security

Why does Slimstock make security a priority?

Because cyberattacks on supply chains have risen by more than 300% since 2021 (according to PwC). Slimstock recognises that protecting over 1,500 customers comes with great responsibility, so it continually works to strengthen the security of its systems, products and services.

What principles guide security at Slimstock?

Slimstock’s approach is built on three key principles: availability, integrity and confidentiality of information. These pillars ensure that every process is designed to manage security risks and maintain customer trust.

How are employees trained in security?

Slimstock believes that knowledge is the best defence. That’s why all employees receive ongoing training in security best practices, helping them identify and respond effectively to potential threats.

How does Slimstock protect customer data?

The company complies with data protection regulations and industry standards. Its dedicated security and compliance team carries out regular audits to identify and address vulnerabilities, ensuring that customer data remains secure at all times.

How does Slimstock ensure its software is secure?

Slimstock develops its software following secure coding practices and conducts security assessments throughout the entire development cycle. With a three-week release cycle, its solutions are constantly updated to tackle emerging threats.

What happens if a security incident is detected?

Slimstock has a rapid and proactive incident response process designed to contain, investigate and resolve any threat efficiently. Open communication with customers is maintained throughout the entire process.

What security certifications does Slimstock hold?

Slimstock is certified to ISO 27001:2022, ensuring that strong security principles are embedded in every stage of solution development and day-to-day operations.

Where are Slimstock’s solutions hosted and what options are available?

Customers can choose between on-premise deployment or Slim4 Cloud. Slimstock’s cloud infrastructure is fully redundant, eliminating single points of failure and ensuring high levels of availability and protection.

How is Slimstock’s cloud infrastructure protected?

Slim4 Cloud combines the highest standards of physical security with advanced cloud security technologies. Malicious activity is continuously monitored and neutralised, ensuring services remain stable and accessible at all times.

What makes Slimstock’s approach to security different?

At Slimstock, security it’s embedded in every part of the organisation. From staff training to solution design, security is an integral part of the company’s culture. You can learn more about how Slimstock ensures security on our dedicated security page.

 

Sustainability

How does Slimstock support sustainability goals?

We help companies reduce waste, emissions and energy consumption by optimizing planning and inventory processes, making your supply chain both efficient and environmentally responsible. You can explore more in our dedicated sustainability page.

 

Get acquainted

Does Slim4 provide free demos?

Yes, we can provide you a free 1-to-1 Slim4 demo. But wouldn’t a tailor-made demo answer all your questions? We can do this for you. Let’s have a chat so that we know what you are looking for and we can prepare a demo, which would fit your needs.

Want to see some reviews?

On our website you can read business cases of customers from across the world, and you can see who we are working for.

Want to contact us?

Feel free to contact us here.

Slimstock