Effiziente Ersatzteilbestandsplanung | PartsOS Inventory für Weinig

In Search for an Efficient Spare Parts Inventory Management Solution

For Kolja Eckert (Director of Lifetime Services Spare Parts Logistics) and Timo Rüttling (Team Leader of Spare Parts Sales) at Michael Weinig AG, spare parts availability has always been the focus of their efforts to ensure the company's competitiveness. The expert duo, therefore, decided to modernize the planning processes fundamentally.

The goal is clear: Implementing a system that significantly increases planning quality through modern technology and automation. The complexity of a medium-sized mechanical engineering company, characterized by a wide variety of articles and erratic demands, must be efficiently mapped.

Various standard spare parts planning solutions were evaluated during the supplier selection process.

The selection criteria were:

Availability of "state-of-the-art" planning methods

Implementation costs, time to first value, and ROI

Ongoing costs during the utilization phase

Applicability to other WEINIG business areas

There was no established spare parts planning solution on the market that met the specific needs of medium-sized mechanical engineering companies like WEINIG.

PartsCloud, as a cloud supply chain provider specializing in the mechanical engineering spare parts business, recognized the need to develop an inventory planning solution as an additional module in the existing PartsOS software platform.

WEINIG's challenges matched perfectly with PartsCloud's need to develop the software further based on the requirements and expertise of medium-sized mechanical engineering companies. WEINIG and PartsCloud, therefore, decided to work together as part of a software development cooperation.

Suboptimal Planning Results Led to Lost Revenue in Parts Sales

Michael Weinig AG was faced with considerable challenges in inventory management. Without a dedicated planner for spare parts inventories, systematic planning was not possible. Instead, the burden was placed on an employee who manually carried out static planning in time-consuming procedures - and did so virtually "alongside" the actual day-to-day business of selling spare parts.

Complex process, inaccurate forecasts.

A simple, Excel-based average forecast model only provided inaccurate results, was too coarse-grained, and neglected essential factors along the spare parts lifecycle, such as planning new product launches and remnant coverage.

An internal study confirmed the negative effects and showed that Weinig customers were churning due to insufficient parts availability in the spare parts business.

The planning results from Excel had to be manually uploaded to the ERP system, which delayed their implementation.
The purchasing department's procurement of spare parts was completely decoupled from the planning process, meaning that systematic implementation of the planning results was not guaranteed. This along with other inefficiencies in the process resulted in insufficient spare parts availability and a high level of capital commitment.

Simplifying the Planning Process Drastically Reduced the Workload

Through WEINIG's partnership with PartsCloud, WEINIG is taking an important step towards efficiency and accuracy in spare parts management with PartsOS Inventory. PartsOS Inventory will fully automate the previously manual planning process with the help of an AI-supported demand forecast engine, which carries out the entire planning process for desired spare parts at any time at the push of a button.

This reduces more than 85% of the manual workload for the spare parts planner.

The solution will also offer the option of simulating various scenarios. This will allow the team to investigate how changes in availability or capital expenditure parameters affect stock levels.
The rapid progress of the project and the achievement of the first milestones after just a few weeks were important confirmations for Kolja Eckert and Timo Rüttling's team that they had chosen the right partner for spare parts planning.

PartsOS Inventory is currently being used successfully in a Michael Weinig AG plant. The results to date and increased efficiency form the ideal starting point for expanding the project to other locations to avoid redundant stocks.

PartsCloud Combines Inventory Planning with International Fulfillment

PartsCloud is the only provider of planning software that, in addition to planning, also offers the option of automated global fulfillment of industrial spare parts.

Customers can achieve the maximum potential in spare parts management when they combine the planning solution with fulfillment. Live data from the fulfillment process flows back into planning, which enables even better spare parts inventory planning. For example, replenishment times can be kept up to date dynamically in the ERP via supplier delivery reliability.

The unique combination of planning and implementation from a single source enables PartsCloud customers such as Weinig to make optimum use of the potential identified in planning and fulfillment. This sets PartsCloud apart from purely software-based tools, where realizing potential is often challenging due to a lack of system and process integration.

Maximum impact thanks to unique combination of planning software, ERP integration and fulfillment-as-a- service.

In Search for an Efficient Spare Parts Inventory Management Solution

Suboptimal Planning Results Led to Lost Revenue in Parts Sales

Simplifying the Planning Process Drastically Reduced the Workload

Michael Weinig AG Sets New Standard in Spare Parts Inventory Planning

PartsCloud Combines Inventory Planning with International Fulfillment

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