Selective laser melting (SLM) is becoming a powerful additive manufacturing technology for different industries: automotive, medical, chemical, aerospace, etc. The extension of applications requires a wide spectrum of powder materials with specific properties. To produce parts with tailored properties by SLM, optimal process-parameters and scanning strategies have to be used for different powders. Numerical simulation allows the estimation of temperature distribution during laser melting and prediction the final microstructures and properties of SLM object. A hierarchical approach, including systematic analysis of SLM parameters necessary to control the final product quality on every level - track, layer, 3D object is suggested and discussed. A series of single tracks, layers and 3D objects were manufactured from metal powders to validate a proposed algorithm. The efficiency of the approach was illustrated by the manufacturing of fully dense samples from AISI 420 stainless steel.