'Without training you won't win a game'

Jan Kraaijeveld - Sales Director at Slimstock

The world of logistics and warehousing is all about having knowledge. However, if you ask me, many often lack that necessary knowledge. Although the world of inventory is always complex, at the same time there is no problem that has not already been solved by someone else. You have to keep looking around, you have to dare to ask, you have to keep learning.

Slimstock has been helping customers solve supply chain problems since 1993. We do this worldwide with more than 400 experts working from 23 offices, including the headquarters in the Netherlands. We use our software to help companies do their planning and inventory control work better. But despite the fact that our software is a fantastic tool, it is also nothing more than that. You have to have knowledge.

Stock planning and inventory management are only a single subject at universities and colleges; you can't specialize in them. That's why we founded our own Slimstock Academy. At the Slimstock Academy, our customers can maintain and increase their knowledge of inventory planning and management free of charge. 

I often compare stock management to elite sports. Top athletes don't become the best by accident. They train every day to peak during a competition. But in our industry, you see a lot of people playing a game every day precisely, but not taking time to train. And so they don't get better. So I advocate for people to train more, to visit each other more often. By training more and sharing knowledge you end up being stronger in the game. And for knowledge, you usually don't have to look any further than within a 20- to 30-kilometer radius of your own company. Within that is someone who has already solved your problem and can help you further.

You can look at inventory in different ways. Looking through a financial lens, inventory is actually always too high, but looking through a logistical lens, inventory is primarily a matter of place and time. In contrast, a buyer is only after the best possible deal and a salesperson thinks the wrong product is in stock. The Slimstock Academy's training courses are therefore available to everyone in the industry, at different levels. From operational inventory management to tactics and strategy. Because to stay within sports for a moment: you won't win a game if you don't make it a team effort. Too often I come across companies where people think: 'oh well, we'll just do that'. But you won't achieve top results with such a lax attitude. Only top teams achieve top results. Look at Formula 1. There they even train blindfolded for a pit stop. You can think that's excessive, but it is precisely by endlessly training the smallest details and sub-areas that you get the job done perfectly. 

In the end, you will have to align all perspectives to win the race. I try to make as many people as possible aware of that. Not by selling as many software packages as possible, but by sharing with them all the knowledge we have accumulated over the years. By training together. Because you can't win a race without training.