Tennant manufactures and supplies an extensive range of innovative high quality cleaning machines. A large part of the components are produced and assembled in the Netherlands where they are stored in the adjacent distribution centre. From here, products are shipped to distributors across the EMEA region. On average, over 2,000 order lines are picked at the distribution centre every day.

The product range consists of 50,000 to 60,000 active SKUs, of which over 22,000 are kept in stock. In the past, these items were managed manually. However, as Materials Manager, Richard Ornek, explains: “This was a labour-intensive task which required a lot of specialist knowledge.” Thanks to Slimstock’s inventory optimisation software, Slim4, the team at Tennant has been able to significantly reduce the complexity of this process. This in turn has enabled the business to become far more responsive to exceptions.
 

Improved long tail management

“Until now we have only used Slim4 to generate forecasts for the after-market. Production parts are still planned within our MRP-system and the data is combined in our SAP ERP system,” explains Ornek.

Despite this, the service level improvement target was achieved within just one year. With greater insight, the business’s performance has improved, particularly for critical components. Furthermore, whereas before, the service level did not exceed 96.5%, it is now stable at 98.5%. “Thanks to Slim4, we now have a reliable forecast and as a result we can now maximise the profitability of our assortment, something which is essential for long tail articles,” explains Ornek.

Consequently, the number of back orders and partial shipments has also decreased significantly.