If you run production across more than one site, you already know how this goes. The components are at one plant, the finished goods are selling out of another warehouse, and the spreadsheet that ties it all together only makes sense to one person.
Get it wrong and a missing $2 fastener stops a production line, while cash sits in slow-moving stock at the wrong location.
This guide compares six inventory planning tools for small and mid-sized manufacturers running two or more sites. We've been upfront about where each one fits, including where StockTrim isn't the right choice.
Short answer: For small and mid-sized manufacturers, StockTrim is the best fit if you want location-level forecasts and multi-level BOM planning on top of the inventory system you already use, without an enterprise project. Cin7 suits businesses that want to replace their whole inventory system. Netstock suits mid-market teams on a supported ERP. Kinaxis and e2open are built for large enterprises with dedicated planning teams.
We looked at each tool from the point of view of a manufacturer running two or more production sites, warehouses, or distribution points. Here's what we checked:
StockTrim is a cloud-based inventory planning tool for small and mid-sized product businesses. It connects to the inventory, ERP, or accounting system you already use, reads your sales history, stock levels, and purchase orders, then tells you what to order, how much, and when.
It doesn't replace your inventory system. It sits on top of it and does the planning work your system can't.
How StockTrim handles multiple sites
Filter the order plan by location and you see forecasts and order quantities for that site only, based on that site's stock levels and that site's sales history. Or stay at the product level and expand each product to see its forecast per location.
Settings like service levels, safety stock, and lead times can be set once at the overall level or separately for each location. So your busy main plant and your smaller regional site don't have to share the same rules.
StockTrim also works with the two common ways multi-site businesses buy stock:
How StockTrim handles bills of materials
With the Raw Materials Forecasting and Multi-Level BOMs add-on, StockTrim forecasts demand for your finished goods, then works back through your bill of materials to calculate how many of each component and raw material you need. Component forecasts are simply finished goods demand multiplied by the BOM quantity, so the logic is easy to check.
You can expand the whole hierarchy, from a finished product down to sub-assemblies and their parts. Or search for a single component and see every product it goes into, which is handy when one part is shared across your range.
Here's a simple example. You make an outdoor chair at two sites. Site A forecasts 400 chairs next quarter and Site B forecasts 250. Each chair uses 8 of the same stainless bolt. That's 5,200 bolts in total before safety stock: 3,200 for Site A and 2,000 for Site B. Change a supplier's lead time from 30 to 60 days, and the order dates and quantities update straight away.
Shoreline Truck Parts, a Michigan manufacturer with products containing 50 or more parts each, used to plan around 600 SKUs in spreadsheets and missed the small components. "StockTrim has helped us to see how many of each component part we're using throughout all our different offerings and allowed us to better plan how we order those," says president Bennett Allen. Their weekly inventory review now takes 30 to 40 minutes, less than half what it used to.
StockTrim features for multi-site manufacturers
StockTrim pricing
StockTrim publishes its pricing, and it's based on your annual revenue. For example, a business doing $3M to $5M a year pays $298 per month on an annual plan, with the BOM add-on at $90 per month on top. There's a 14-day free trial with no credit card needed. See the pricing page for your revenue band.
StockTrim pros and cons
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Cin7 (Cin7 Core and Cin7 Omni) is an inventory management system rather than a standalone planning tool. It covers stock control, order management across sales channels, warehouse operations, and production with bills of materials.
Its forecasting tool, ForesightAI, is an add-on that forecasts demand and suggests purchases, transfers between locations, and assemblies. Cin7 Core also offers materials requirements planning (MRP) as a separate add-on.
Worth knowing: Cin7 and StockTrim aren't either-or. StockTrim connects directly to both Cin7 Core and Cin7 Omni, and plenty of StockTrim customers run Cin7 as their inventory system with StockTrim doing the forecasting.
Cin7 features
Cin7 pros and cons
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Netstock is a planning tool that connects to your ERP and adds forecasting, inventory classification, and replenishment on top. It supports BOM-level forecasting for manufacturers and plans demand across locations, including central warehouses supplying other sites.
Netstock features
Netstock pros and cons
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Inventory Planner, owned by Sage, forecasts demand and builds purchase orders for ecommerce and retail brands. It connects to Shopify, Amazon, and other retail platforms, and can plan replenishment per warehouse, including transfers and assembly orders for kits and bundles.
Inventory Planner features
Inventory Planner pros and cons
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Kinaxis is supply chain planning software for large enterprises with complex, global operations. It combines demand planning, supply planning, inventory optimization, and scenario modeling, and it's typically run by a dedicated planning team.
Kinaxis features
Kinaxis pros and cons
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e2open focuses on multi-echelon inventory optimization. It models stock across every tier of a supply chain, from suppliers to factories to distribution centers, to find the most cost-effective place to hold inventory.
e2open features
e2open pros and cons
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| Platform | Best for | Multi-level BOM forecasting | Location-level forecasting | Works with your current system |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| StockTrim | SMB manufacturers and distributors | Yes (add-on) | Yes, all plans | Yes, 20+ connections plus CSV and API |
| Cin7 | Brands wanting one all-in-one system | Production BOMs; forecasting via add-on | Yes, via add-on | No, it replaces your inventory system |
| Netstock | Mid-market businesses on an ERP | Yes | Yes | Yes, ERP-focused |
| Inventory Planner | Ecommerce and retail brands | Kits and bundles | Yes | Yes, retail-focused |
| Kinaxis | Large enterprises | Yes | Yes | Enterprise ERPs |
| e2open | Global supply networks | Network-level (multi-echelon) | Yes | Enterprise ERPs |
With one location, the math is simple: total demand is what you need to stock. Add a second site and that falls apart. Each location has its own customers, its own demand pattern, and often its own suppliers and lead times.
A product flying off the shelf at one site can sit untouched at another. If your planning only looks at totals, the numbers look fine overall while one site runs short and the other overflows. You end up paying for emergency freight or transfers to fix a problem the forecast should have caught.
Location-level forecasting fixes this by forecasting each site from its own sales. Then you decide how to fill the gap: order straight to each site, or order to a central hub and transfer out.
A bill of materials lists every part that goes into a finished product. Forecasting finished goods alone isn't enough, because you buy components, not finished products. If you make 500 units that each need 12 parts from 6 suppliers with different lead times, working that out by hand gets messy fast.
It gets harder when parts are shared. If three products all use the same component and demand rises for two of them, a spreadsheet that plans product by product can miss the combined jump. BOM forecasting adds up the demand for that part across everything it goes into, so you see the shortage before it stops the line.
That protects you from both expensive mistakes: over-ordering cheap parts that tie up cash, and under-ordering one critical part that halts production.
Here's the order we'd recommend:
Most tools fall into one of two camps. Enterprise platforms like Kinaxis and e2open have deep planning power but need big teams, long rollouts, and big budgets. All-in-one systems like Cin7 bundle planning in, but only if you move your whole operation onto them.
StockTrim fills the gap. You keep the inventory system your team already knows, and add location-level forecasting, multi-level BOM planning, variable lead times, and automated purchase orders on top. A small team can get it running in an afternoon and see exactly how every number was worked out.
If you're running production across two or more sites and your ordering still lives in spreadsheets, that's the problem StockTrim was built to fix. Start your 14-day free trial or book a demo to see it with your own data.
Inventory optimization software uses your sales history to forecast demand and recommend how much stock to hold and when to reorder. StockTrim calculates order quantities from demand forecasts, current stock, and supplier lead times, helping you cut both stockouts and excess inventory.
They can, but it's rarely a good fit. Tools like Kinaxis and e2open are built for organizations with dedicated supply chain teams and enterprise budgets. StockTrim gives small and mid-sized manufacturers the core planning they need, with published pricing and setup measured in hours, not months.
Yes. StockTrim forecasts each location from that location's own sales history and stock levels, and lets you set lead times, service levels, and safety stock per location. Multi-location planning is included on all plans.
Yes. If you receive stock into a central warehouse first, StockTrim's location order quantities become the branch transfer amounts you send to each site. If suppliers deliver directly to each site, those same quantities become your purchase order lines.
StockTrim multiplies your finished goods forecast by the BOM quantity of each component, all the way down through sub-assemblies and raw materials. It's available as the Raw Materials Forecasting and Multi-Level BOMs add-on.
Yes. StockTrim connects directly to Cin7 Core and Cin7 Omni. Many businesses keep Cin7 as their inventory system and use StockTrim for forecasting and purchase planning.
StockTrim connects to more than 20 platforms, including Katana, Fishbowl, Acumatica, MYOB Acumatica, NetSuite, Odoo, Unleashed, Cin7 Core, Cin7 Omni, inFlow, Zoho Inventory, QuickBooks, Xero, and Shopify. It also supports CSV import and has an open REST API. See the full list on the integrations page.
90% of users are up and running in under an hour. Connect your system, let StockTrim import your data, and start reviewing your order plan. Very large data syncs can take longer. You can self-onboard or book a personalized onboarding session.