Agile and robust inventory management is your best bet against the complex and competitive conditions of the automotive market

Customers expect suppliers to be able to provide anything and everything at a moment’s notice.
As a response to this demand, many businesses retain a large assortment to encompass thousands of different SKUs. The problem is, how much do you know about the items within your ever-expanding assortment?
Do you know which items offer the highest return or which are most important to your customers? Equally, do you know which items are costing you the most money?
While offering millions of different products undoubtedly provides customers with plenty of choices, keeping up with these exploding ranges can prove a constant battle.
Consequently, many companies are unnecessarily investing considerable resources into items that offer limited value to the business or the customer.
That being said, usually the items that result in less value for the company sell at a relatively slower pace (slow moving items) and are because of that, much harder to forecast.
This results in planners spending more time on them which ultimately results in an even lower margin.
Some businesses try to resolve this by offering replaceable items, but the difficulty here is to make sure planners all follow the same rules and consistently apply these when ordering, to avoid one item being stocked with ten different brands on the shelf. This type of excess stock from replaceable items has a high chance of becoming obsolete stock.
To ensure assortment decisions are made in line with both the expectations of the customer as well as the demands of the wider industry, businesses must ensure that the assortment strategy is a clear reflection of the business’s goals as well as the expectations of the customer.
Slimstock says your best plan of action to combat these challenges is to invest in the right technology: a specialised inventory management software can provide that solution, like Slim4.
It says the right software has an integrated assortment index to support companies in making the right decision in whether to sell SKUs from stock or not and whether replaceable items should be ordered or not.
Slimstock explains the automated planning will indicate how much to stock for slow moving items based on historical demand, trends, seasonality and expected order sizes. That way the business will be supported in what to order, when and how much.
Slimstock is participating at the Autocare Convention 2023, with its supply chain experts to speak with attendees from Stand 32 on how Slim4 can solve inventory challenges.

For more information, visit www.slimstock.com