Inventory and Workforce Planning – A Use Case Study

Small and medium-sized enterprises are increasingly facing the challenge of planning inventory and human resources in an efficient, transparent, and needs-based manner. In particular, volatile demand, limited personnel capacity, and processes that have evolved over time can result in decisions regarding material procurement and staffing being made only to a limited extent based on data.

Approaches from the field of business analytics offer the opportunity to systematically evaluate existing process and company data, reveal correlations, and derive well-founded recommendations for action. A structured analysis of the current state can help identify opportunities for improvement in inventory planning, workforce scheduling, and the underlying processes.
The goal of this thesis is first to map and analyze the relevant processes and available data of a small or medium-sized enterprise. Building on this, a data- and process-based assessment of the current state will be conducted. Using appropriate methods from the field of business analytics, weaknesses, influencing factors, and opportunities for optimization in inventory and workforce planning will then be identified.

Based on the findings, concrete, practical recommendations for action will be developed for the company. If the course of the project allows, selected measures will be implemented in close collaboration with the company and evaluated for their effectiveness.

Are you interested in a practical research project at the intersection of production planning, workforce planning, data analysis, and process management? This project offers you the opportunity to analyze real-world business processes and help shape concrete improvement measures.

Possible areas of focus for the thesis include:

• Analysis of existing inventory, order, and personnel data
• Identification of weaknesses and areas for improvement
• Deriving recommendations for inventory and workforce planning
• Evaluation of selected measures

We look forward to receiving your application, which should include the following documents:

• Cover letter describing your motivation and relevant prior experience
• Resume
• Current portfolio of work