The Hattingen-based company is thus saying goodbye to a time-consuming and cost-intensive full inventory of all storage areas. Even in the first run, the counting effort was reduced to just a few hours with the inventory sampling software.

TonerPartner has been supplying end customers and specialist retailers with office supplies on a daily basis since 1993 and has received several awards in Germany as a specialist for toner and printer accessories. The company uses a storage area of around 12,500 square meters and stocks around 15,000 permanently required items, with an average of 4,000 parcels being dispatched each day. The full inventory of the warehouse space often used to take around 30 days, involving up to 30 employees - a time-consuming and expensive process. Last year, the picking area was filled to the brim with replenishment items for the inventory, meaning that the replenishment area had to remain closed for a whole week for the count. The picking area was then counted, which was a considerable and low-value-added effort for the company.

Switch to inventory sampling in just 15 days

Those responsible came across Remira's Statcontrol inventory sampling software through a recommendation. As inventory time was approaching, implementation had to be quick, but the software was ready for use within 15 days of the initial contact. "In just a few meetings, we were able to work out the benefits of inventory sampling for TonerPartner together with those responsible and plan and finally implement the time-critical project - not least thanks to the active commitment of everyone involved and the effective cooperation," explains Christian Günther, Team Lead Inventory Sampling at Remira. The first inventory sampling was therefore carried out on site in mid-December together with the Remira team and Statcontrol delivered the results for the count: A total of around 12,800 warehouse items were handed over in the population and the system calculated a sample amounting to just 400 warehouse items that had to be physically counted. This corresponds to a proportion of around 3 percent to be counted. This task was completed within six hours by 12 warehouse employees.

Optimization potential and sources of error identified

During this year's inventory sampling, together with the auditor, a consultant from the Statcontrol team and the warehouse management, problems were identified in the storage of items that led to inaccuracies in inventory management. TonerPartner will rectify these in the current financial year so that the results of the inventory sampling will be even better next year. The responsible employees at TonerPartner praised Christian Günther's support of the inventory process as well as Remira's support. The acceptance of the use of inventory sampling among employees is also high, as the stocktaking process is now much faster and less stressful.