Customer Success Story
LOWA simplifies seasonal planning with accessible, granular data
Founded as a shoemaker workshop in 1923 near Munich, LOWA is now one of the world’s leading outdoor shoe manufacturers. LOWA shoes are currently exported to 80 countries worldwide. The international business began in the 1970s with Austria, the United States, Japan, and Switzerland, and each country has its own LOWA collection.
Challenge
Transparency challenges in a highly complex order planning process
LOWA Schuhe AG, the Swiss subsidiary of outdoor and mountaineering shoe manufacturer LOWA, sells more than 400,000 pairs of shoes annually, with 45 employees handling logistics, back-office tasks, marketing, and sales. Planning the order quantities for approximately 460 different shoe models is highly complex because some models are produced at specific manufacturing facilities in Germany, Italy, and Slovakia during specific times. Additionally, LOWA plans its order quantities on a monthly basis starting with the overall budget provided by management, and then planning the spring/summer and autumn/winter seasons for the following year in April and August. These plans are then broken down by month.
“We have been working with Excel and inventory lists so far. During COVID-19, the situation was exacerbated by the scarcity of resources such as laces, leather, insoles, and cardboard boxes,” says Markus Kaufmann, Sales Manager at LOWA Schuhe AG. “That’s why we decided to introduce a planning software to gain more transparency.”
Solution
Access to real-time data enables streamlined order planning
LOWA Schuhe AG aimed to improve its Excel-based quantity planning process by implementing a planning solution. The objective was to enhance visibility into spring/summer and autumn/winter planning on a monthly basis. Jedox enables access to up-to-date budgets, order quantities, and order inventory for each product group based on data from the LOGI-Soft enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. Taking an iterative approach, LOWA built internal Jedox expertise and achieved quick adoption without extensive training.
Data intelligence specialist Informatec suggested that LOWA Schuhe AG consider Consilix for their planning needs. After the first meeting, Kaufmann decided that Jedox was the best fit. Jedox impressed with its powerful modeling capabilities, adaptability, scalability, and user-friendly platform, while Consilix offered valuable expertise and a customer-centric approach.
“Consilix quickly understood our processes and challenges, allowing us to work towards a solution very effectively,” Kaufmann says. “This process paid off for us, as we gained a very good understanding of Jedox. Additionally, we were able to use the tool quickly without additional training.”
Planning is based on procurement figures, sales figures, and customer revenues extracted from LOGI-Soft. The data extracts run on an SQL basis. After planning is completed, the planned figures are re-entered into LOGI-Soft to send the orders to the parent company in Germany. A prototype was ready within a few weeks and then gradually optimized. Jedox went live for the first time to plan goods for the upcoming spring/summer season.
“We were able to quickly put Jedox into productive use with the initial version. We communicated customization requests regarding layout or performance to Consilix, which were implemented on the same day or within a maximum of three days depending on complexity,” Kaufmann says.
Outcome
Access to real-time data enables efficient planning
The most significant benefit for Kaufmann is improved transparency throughout the planning process: “I can now easily access detailed information about the current state of planning, which was not possible before. Examples include current order stock levels and quantities per product group. With just a few clicks, I can get an overview of the budget status, the quantities of goods planned for each season, and the number of units already ordered for each model.”
Jedox also makes the planning process independent of individuals. The software is well-structured, user-friendly, and can be learned without significant training efforts.
LOWA plans to further enhance planning efficiency by integrating Jedox and Qlik, enabling automated data transfer from the LOGI-Soft system. This integration will provide planning data in Qlik for plan-versus-actual analysis, leading to improved planning accuracy.
“Jedox has significantly increased planning transparency, which provides me with much more confidence in determining order quantities. I can easily view the current status of our order inventory at any time,” Kaufmann says.
With just a few clicks, I can get an overview of the budget status, the quantities of goods planned for each season, and the number of units already ordered for each model.
– Markus Kaufmann, Sales Manager, LOWA Schuhe AG
Jedox Partner: Consilix AG
Consilix AG, founded in 2020 as a spin-off from Informatec GmbH, works with organizations across several industries to on simplify and continuously improve their planning, budgeting, and forecasting processes.
