Optimierung von Inventurprozessen – Datenbasierte Analyse und Reporting

Abstract

A precise inventory forms the basis for reliable accounting and a well-founded inventory valuation and is therefore a central instrument of operational accounting and controlling. At the same time, it presents companies with numerous challenges. Different inventory procedures, manual processes, insufficient data quality and complex IT system landscapes make transparent and efficient stocktaking difficult. Despite advancing digitalization, many companies lack consistent concepts for the systematic analysis and preparation of inventory data. However, modern reporting tools such as Microsoft Power BI offer the potential to close this gap and promote data-driven decisions. The thesis examines how inventory processes can be optimized by combining data-based analysis and modern reporting. In the theoretical part, the legal and procedural basics of inventory and various inventory procedures are first presented. Building on this, the potential of digital technologies, in particular business intelligence, is explained and placed in the context of controlling. It is shown how BI tools such as Power BI can contribute to the visualization and evaluation of inventory data in order to increase transparency, accuracy and efficiency. The methodological basis is a comprehensive literature research, supplemented by a practical implementation in an industrial company. In the practical part, an inventory report was developed in Power BI for the controlling of the Business Unit Band of the Steel Division of voestalpine Stahl GmbH. Data from SAP BW, SQL and Excel was merged and automatically analyzed. For the first time, the created report enables a comprehensible analysis of scrap differences. Thanks to the improved visualization and data integration, systematic causes of inventory discrepancies can be identified and addressed in a targeted manner. The work shows that data-driven reporting approaches in conjunction with modern BI tools can make a decisive contribution to increasing the transparency, accuracy and efficiency of inventory processes, especially if they are consistently integrated into the existing system landscapes and are also accompanied by appropriate organizational support.

Date of Award	2025
Original language	German (Austria)
Supervisor	Peter Hofer (Supervisor)