30 hours of planning work per week, yet still facing excess inventory, stock-outs and food waste: This was the challenge facing Hammermühle GmbH. Today, the Bavarian manufacturer of gluten-free baked goods and pasta uses Predictwiser.Cloud for its planning processes, and the results have now been officially documented. KLAV – the German Competence Center for the Prevention of Food Waste and Food Losses has included the collaboration as a case study in its knowledge hub. For us, this is a special recognition. KLAV collects successful approaches that help companies reduce food waste and losses throughout the food supply chain. The inclusion of AI-powered demand planning as a practical example demonstrates that effective planning is one of the most important levers for reducing food waste.
The Starting Point: Planning with Excel and SAP
Hammermühle is a long-established, medium-sized food manufacturer and our longest-standing customer. Before implementing Predictwiser.Cloud, demand and production planning were handled manually in Excel, supported by SAP. This created several typical challenges:
- High time commitment: Around 30 hours per week were spent on planning alone.
- Risk of errors: Manual planning was prone to mistakes, with planners personally bearing the responsibility for them.
- Inconsistent ordering cycles: Inaccurate forecasts resulted in ordering too much at times and too little at others.
- Stock-outs and food waste: Significant demand fluctuations caused shortages on the one hand and excess inventory on the other.
Managing Director Lucas Fischer and his team therefore looked for a way to make planning more efficient and better aligned with actual demand.
Beyond improving the KPIs, one aspect was particularly important to him: relieving the planning team of the burden of manual planning.
The Solution: AI-Powered Demand Planning with Predictwiser.Cloud
With Predictwiser.Cloud, order quantities and production volumes are now generated automatically and only need to be reviewed by planners. Hammermühle uses all modules of the platform, from demand planning and inventory planning to production planning. As a result, Excel and the planning functions within SAP have largely been replaced.
“Ideally, the order proposals and production proposals generated by Predictwiser.Cloud only need to be reviewed by our team.”
Lucas Fischer, Managing Director, Hammermühle GmbH
Inventory levels at the external warehouse are also optimized algorithmically. This allows purchasing, production and inventory quantities to be aligned more closely with actual demand.
Live in Just 7 Working Days
One important success factor was the rapid implementation. From providing the required data to going live, the entire process took approximately 7 working days. This was made possible by a deliberately simple integration approach. Hammermühle's ERP system automatically sends the required data to Optiwiser via email or a distribution list. This functionality is available in practically every ERP system. There was no need for complex API integration or a lengthy IT project.
The Results
The improvements are clearly measurable:
- Planning effort: Reduced from approximately 30 hours to a maximum of 3 hours per week
- Forecast accuracy: Increased from approximately 70% to 90% (monthly)
- Inventory holding costs: Reduced by 36% through algorithmically optimized inventory
- Stock-outs: Reduced by 80%
“In the end, a complete planning cycle no longer takes 30 hours per week, but a maximum of just 3 hours.”
Lucas Fischer
Less excess inventory means fewer products exceeding their best-before dates. Fewer stock-outs mean more satisfied customers. And completing planning in just a few hours instead of an entire working week frees up time for more strategic tasks.
How Much Potential Is Hidden in Your Planning?
Are you still planning with Excel or struggling with excess inventory and stock-outs?
Book Your Free Potential Analysis
Our Takeaway
The Hammermühle case study demonstrates how data-driven planning can make operational processes more efficient while reducing food waste. Especially for medium-sized food manufacturers, moving from Excel to AI does not have to be a major undertaking. Going live in just a few days, without complex interfaces and with a noticeable reduction in workload for the planning team, is entirely possible. We would like to thank KLAV for including the project in its knowledge hub and Lucas Fischer and the Hammermühle team for their longstanding and trusted collaboration.
You can find the full case study in the KLAV Knowledge Hub.
Would You Like to Automate Your Planning Too?
%20(1).png)
.png){kind=icon}
