How RWA Raiffeisen Ware Austria AG successfully manages inventory using REMIRA Software

Serving as a manufacturer, wholesaler, and service provider across five business segments, RWA Raiffeisen Austria AG faces enormous logistical challenges. That’s why REMIRA’s intelligent inventory management software is used at the Traun and Korneuburg locations. The planning teams in the Home & Garden and Spare Parts divisions can rely on the software solution for sales forecasts, order recommendations, and inventory levels.

For over 30 years, RWA Raiffeisen Austria AG (RWA for short) has supported independent warehouse cooperatives in Austria as a wholesaler and service provider in the procurement of operating supplies and products, as well as in the marketing of agricultural products. It operates in five business segments: Agriculture, Technology, Energy, Building Materials, and Home & Garden. Today, the umbrella organization RWA is represented not only in Austria but also in eight countries in Central and Southeastern Europe, with more than 40 subsidiaries.

The Traun location houses the central order-picking warehouse for RWA’s Home & Garden division. From here, approximately 900 locations in Austria, Italy, and Germany are supplied—at least once a week, and major customers as often as twice a week. REMIRA’s sales forecasting and inventory management software is used to plan the approximately 20,000 items in the Home & Garden segments. Previously, the process was primarily manual, relying on numerous Excel spreadsheets. This approach was not only very time-consuming but also unsustainable due to paper consumption. In addition, availability gaps occurred time and again. Against this backdrop, Ingrid Peraus, Head of Logistics at RWA’s Traun branch, began searching for a new and specialized software solution for inventory planning over fifteen years ago. She found what she was looking for at a trade show in Germany, where she learned about REMIRA’s software for sales forecasting and inventory management:

“What convinced me at the time was the expertise of the representatives as well as REMIRA’s Austrian implementation partner, ARBOR Management Consulting GmbH. In addition, the REMIRA software offered the option of transitioning suppliers one by one—rather than in a single major overhaul. This allowed us to learn alongside the system, which quickly created its own momentum. Originally, we planned to onboard ten suppliers per week, but in the end, everyone was migrated after just two to three months.”

Act Early Rather Than React Late

The positive effects were not long in coming. In the past, employees manually calculated the free-shipping threshold, which often resulted in ordering more than was ultimately needed. On top of that, orders weren’t always placed on time, and only certain employees had an overview of the Excel spreadsheets and inventory planning, as Ingrid Peraus explains:

“Thanks to the REMIRA software, we’ve always kept accurate records of sales and all relevant information. This allows us to easily compensate for staff absences due to illness or vacation because everyone has access to the data. We can see early on which orders are due—not just when customers call and ask where their goods are.”

While employees in inventory planning have more capacity for value-added activities, the REMIRA software calculates reliable order recommendations, taking into account factors such as replenishment time, seasonality, and free-shipping thresholds. This has not only made the work in the planning department easier but has also improved inventory quality:

“We’ve been able to significantly reduce our C-item inventory and actively avoid out-of-stock situations. Delivery reliability has also improved because the software provides us with reliable sales forecasts, allowing us to place orders accordingly.”

In the Home & Garden division, a total of three employees use the REMIRA software for planning and are very satisfied with the support it provides. One of them is Diana Kocev, Business Controller at RWA: “A major advantage of the software is that we can see all items by supplier, as well as the sub-assortments, at a glance. For example, with gloves, we can view the various minimum order quantities, delivery times, and replenishment lead times for all items and update the data accordingly. Price changes are also displayed to me, so I can order more or less in a timely manner.”

Seamless Supply of Replacement Parts and Tires

The RWA central warehouse for spare parts and tires is located at the Korneuburg site. With over 73,000 storage locations, it is one of the largest warehouses in Austria, and up to 3.5 million items are available online. Martin Gößwein, Team Coordinator for Inventory Planning in Korneuburg, is responsible for ensuring that the warehouse cooperatives are supplied with the necessary spare parts at all times. “An uninterrupted supply of spare parts in agriculture is essential, which is why we must ensure high availability in our warehouse. This is only possible with specialized inventory management software,” explains Martin Gösswein, adding: “The biggest challenge is the strong seasonality in agriculture. Spare parts must be available immediately, especially during harvest season, because no farmer can afford to wait two days.”

Another challenge is spare parts that don’t turn over frequently and are therefore difficult to forecast—yet are still important for the spare parts supply. Martin Gösswein and his four-person planning team are supported in this by REMIRA software for sales forecasting and inventory management, which has been in use at the Korneuburg location since 2016. The software solution generates daily order recommendations for the approximately 300 suppliers and manages inventory for about 60,000 items. The recommendations are reviewed and then forwarded to the inventory management system.

Optimal inventory levels and everything at a glance

“In my view, one of the biggest advantages is the software’s clear overview and intuitive operation. You can see all the figures and trends at a glance in a single window and quickly download reports. It’s very practical and makes our day-to-day work in planning much easier, even when covering for vacation or sick leave,”

says Martin Gösswein, expressing his satisfaction with the REMIRA software. In addition, the scheduling team coordinator can rely on the REMIRA inventory management software when it comes to stock levels:

“Fundamentally, our goal in using the software is, of course, to keep inventory as low as possible while simultaneously achieving maximum delivery capacity. Of course, bottlenecks can always occur, but thanks to the software solution, we can reduce them to a minimum.”

In the future, the level of automation at the Traun and Korneuburg locations will be further expanded so that orders for entire product groups will be processed fully automatically. Another goal is to optimize forecasts for new items in the product range that do not yet have historical data. To achieve these goals and continuously develop the software, the managers at RWA Raiffeisen Ware Austria AG are working closely with REMIRA and ARBOR.

Are you interested in our intelligent inventory management software? We’d be happy to advise you!