REMIRA Blog

When it comes to fresh products, timing is everything. If perishable goods have been on the shelf for too long, it costs the grocer a cash coin. Not at MPREIS: In order to avoid excessive stocks and bottlenecks, the supermarket chain manages its stores and logistics center with LOGOMATE from REMIRA. Using intelligent inventory management software reduces MPREIS’s inventory and at the same time increases product availability. Out-of-stock situations are a thing of the past.

The supplier has an important function in the Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI): He assumes the entire responsibility for the replenishment material planning and stock in the warehouse of the dealer. What are the advantages of this role swap in warehouse management? In his new white paper on supplier-driven inventory management, we highlight the positive impact on suppliers and dealers after the introduction of the VMI concept. We use a checklist to provide information on the key figures that need to be available for the successful implementation of VMI. The appropriate software solution for determining up-to-date inventory data and sales forecasts is of fundamental importance.

Why strategic inventory management makes sense

Imagine this challenge in inventory management: A customer wants to buy a specific item from you. But they can’t deliver it because they don’t have it in stock anymore. This situation does not occur once but on a regular basis. As a result, more and more customers are turning to a competitor. Inventory management has become a mission-critical factor before you get it right.

The Bavarian wholesaler ATP-Autoteile optimizes its disposition with LOGOMATE. REMIRA’s software solution ensures increased delivery capability and more efficient inventory management in the fast-growing company.

1 million stock items distributed nationwide

From a decentralized solution to a centrally controlled disposition for one million stock keeping units – this change was made by Österreichische Post in just six months. It has been achieved with REMIRA’s LOGOMATE inventory management software, which distributes the stock items to the 450 branches and 1,350 post partners nationwide. The introduction of the solution has already reduced stocks by ten percent, while at the same time the availability per item has increased by up to 15 percent. During the entire project implementation, Österreichische Post was supervised on site by the REMIRA sales partner ARBOR Management Consulting GmbH.

How does a modern user interface (UI) for digital inventory management has to be designed so that it has a high usability and efficiently supports work processes? The answer to this question will be given at LogiMAT 2019, in Hall 8, Booth C27, and at EuroCIS 2019 in Hall 9 Stand E21. Here, a part of the revised, web-based user interface is presented exclusively. Among other things, the new core functions ensure a more structured work, so that objectives are achieved even faster. The UI can be adapted to different users and task areas.

How digital are German companies? And have electronic processes already become established in inventory management? We wanted to know this and asked executives from different industries. The result: Digitalization has a high or even essential significance for almost all respondents. However, many are lagging behind in the introduction of digital processes.

According to the motto “Order today – install tomorrow”, ATP Auto-Parts-Pöllath offers its customers almost one million items in online shipping. The ever-increasing number of orders recently required a restructuring of inventory management and scheduling. To automate processes, the largest German retailer on eBay introduced REMIRA’s LOGOMATE inventory management software. The first positive results are already measurable: better delivery capability and associated reduction of out-of-stock situations.

Simplifying the scheduling processes and centralising data access for all eight locations – these were the goals of M.Bach GmbH at the introduction of the LOGOMATE inventory management software. With the integration of the REMIRA solution, the wholesaler for plumbing, heating and installation needs is abandoning the disposition from the merchandise management system. This could no longer represent the necessary flexibility, in some decisions the dispatchers had to rely on their gut feeling. The new solution now centralizes all knowledge about purchasing and inventory. In this way, sales of the approximately 20,000 items in stock can be precisely predicted and a high delivery capability can be ensured.

In order to ensure that stocks don’t run out in the warehouse and, above all, in stores, ongoing inventory controls are essential in the interests of transparent and resource-friendly warehouse management. Regular inventory controls are an important element and need to be carried out at least once a year.

Clothes make the man, so the saying goes, which is why fashion boutiques are always well-stocked with suitable and modern fashion items for their customers. But behind the scenes, this requires a fully functional chain of logistical processes. This is because fabrics have to be procured and processed, clothes have to be transported from the production site to the fashion warehouse and stores have to have a steady and sufficient stream of stock. By using sample inventories and intelligent technologies – such as radio frequency identification [RFID] – inventories can be carried out with up to 95% less counting work nowadays. Therefore, sample inventories radically reduce both the financial and the human resources required, they are less prone to errors than the traditional full inventory, and – thanks to their potential uses – are a decisive competitive factor for RFID-managed stocks as well.

Especially for the fashion industry, which is considered to be a global pioneer in the use of RFID technologies along the entire value creation chain, sample inventories form an efficient foundation for well-sorted clothes warehouses. Both industry and logistics have long recognised the potential of RFID technologies, which can be used for contactless identification goods over a wireless signal and without any need for visual contact through the use of an RFID reader. And even in trade, RFID is becoming more widespread for merchandise coding purposes. In the clothing trade, RFID has been helping to take customers’ heightened service and product availability demands into account. The wide variety of products in fashion companies – due to the availability of individual items in different sizes and colours, for example – goes hand in hand with a huge amount of picking work.

RFID records products automatically and drastically cuts costs, which gives in-store employees more freedom to meet customer requirements. Therefore, the fashion industry is considered a pioneering sector with respect to the use of RFID technologies. Goods identification over radio waves helps to avoid shipping errors, incoming goods pallets can be checked more quickly and readout devices used in-store prevent undetected shoplifting among other things. But that’s not all. The technology also makes things easier for the inventory, which takes place at least once per year, and regular inventory controls, provided that these processes are performed in a time-saving manner by means of random samples.

Searching for digital support: Prior to working with REMIRA, Transgourmet, a food wholesaler, had no software for inventory management. The employees in the planning departement estimate at which time and how many of the 25,000 different items had to be ordered. The consequences: shortages, a significant rate of breakage and spoilage in the stored food. “We would like to have a software that permanently optimizes our stocks and generates order proposals,” explains Christine Keszner, Head of Procurement Logistics at Transgourmet.