HBM Machines Customer Story

HBM Machines started 50 years ago with a shop in Gouda that has since grown into a European online retailer with its own branded products. Johanneke de Moor, category and supply chain manager at HBM Machines, explains how she keeps a grip on the chain and why Slimstock is the ideal partner for this. Together with Christiaan van den Bos of Slimstock, she looks ahead to the future.

For metal and woodworking professionals, HBM Machines is known as the specialist that supplies everything for the workshop. HBM has its own shop – with an extensive showroom – but the bulk of its machines, tools and accessories are sold online. “Since we started our web shops in Germany and France two years ago, things have moved fast,” says head of buying Johanneke de Moor. “We also started doing more marketing with good, technical content about our products. All this is now paying off: we expect double-digit growth again this year.”

HBM’s supply chain organisation has also undergone a transformation. A brand-new DC in Waddinxveen was opened, serving both the shop and online channels. To control the entire chain, it recently implemented Slim4. “We buy from the well-known brands, but we mainly supply products of our own HBM brand. We have those produced in China,” says De Moor.

“In the past, we used to have containers full of them come to the Netherlands, deciding on quantities based on gut feeling and common sense. We have made this ordering process data-driven.”

Product launches

HBM’s customer base consists of passionate craftsmen who want to try out the latest tools in their industry. “We can generate a lot of turnover with new, innovative products, but these are very difficult to plan,” says De Moor. “If you buy too little you miss out on sales, if you buy too much you incur high inventory costs and the risk of obsolescence. Partly to play this game well, we bought Slim4. Previously, we used Excel for this but it did not allow us to balance our stock. This way of working was time-consuming and not scalable. We want to grow and enter new markets, and this is when you don’t want your ordering process to become the bottleneck.”

Promotions

One module within Slim4 that benefits the company greatly is the promotion manager. HBM has two major campaigns every year, Toolfest and Black November, which generate a lot of turnover and need to be thoroughly planned. De Moor: “With some manufacturers, we have to give orders nine months in advance. Slim4 makes the forecast of the extra promotional demand and automatically translates it into the most optimal orders, up to a year in advance if necessary.”

“You can never rely solely on your historical sales data when it comes to promotions,” responds Slimstock’s Christiaan van den Bos. “There are always current factors, such as the weather or competitor promotions, that also impact demand. To get a good sales forecast based on all that different data, we make intensive use of Artificial Intelligence within Slimstock. By combining AI with our classic planning algorithms, we manage to support promotions optimally.”

Tactical parameters

Slim4 has also made management by exception, so desired by De Moor, a reality. The ordering process is automatic and planners only need to act when Slim4 detects an anomaly. As an example, she cites a dealer who suddenly places an exceptionally high order. “A planner has to deal with that: What is going on? Is this an incident or is an order like this going to happen more often in the future? We used to start thinking about this only when it was too late, now we dive straight in.” Van den Bos adds: “It is also up to the planners to make sure the tactical parameters are continuously correct. Slim4 calculates orders but does so based on what you as a company want to achieve with your stock. What level of service do you want to offer? How much risk do you want to run? This fine-tuning is an important new task for planners.”

Accelerated Stock turn

HBM Machines has now been live with Slim4 for a few months and De Moor is already seeing clear improvements in stock. “Slim4 distinguishes between A, B and C items and leaves a different ordering policy on this. This has reduced our overstock and actually increased the rotation rate.” The software also takes into account the fact that some products are often sold in combination with each other. “These so-called kits are listed as main items in our ERP but it is the underlying items that you have to reorder. If you’re not careful, this can go completely wrong, but Slim4 has a handy feature for this.”

New markets

With the introduction of Slim4, HBM Machines has established a future-proof inventory operation. De Moor: “We are now ready to enter the rest of Europe. Because if we decide to open an additional DC or shop, Slim4 will make this as easy as possible.” For the forecasting and planning process of the newly conquered markets, the S&OP layer in Slim4 will come in handy, Van den Bos thinks. “Of course, a system cannot figure out by itself how much you are going to sell in a new country. In our S&OP module, you can add future sales budgets to the existing operation as a separate initiative.”

“This is definitely going to help us,” states De Moor. “Especially when several growth initiatives will soon be intertwined. We can then inform our suppliers in time and build up the right stock, but also analyse, for example, whether we have sufficient warehouse space and whether we have sufficient inbound and outbound capacity. That too is part of keeping a grip on your chain.”

HBM Machines is on the eve of a period of further growth. With its new supply chain operation and Slimstock’s scalable software, it is fully prepared for this.