Risikomanagement im internationalen Handel: Notfallstrategien für den Ausfall eines Distributionszentrums eines Drogerie Handelsunternehmens am Beispiel der dm drogerie markt GmbH

Abstract

Anyone who hears the word risk management will initially think of threatening scenarios. This is not necessarily wrong, but the real purpose of risk management is to start where there is no risk at all. Risk identification as the first stage of risk management is responsible for recognising potential sources of danger at an early stage and nipping them in the bud. Especially for large companies, such as the international retail company dm, which operates almost 400 branches in Austria alone, it is more important to be prepared for emergencies and to be able to react to them in good time. To be prepared for risks, dm has set up a risk management agenda. With the help of this agenda, action steps are to be defined that should take effect if a risk materialises. An example scenario is the failure of the Enns distribution centre, which would mean a standstill in deliveries to the shops. In order to gain a general overview of the structure of a retail company, the organisational and operational structures are explained in detail. This topic is examined in more detail at the beginning of this paper, before the significance of logistics networks is explained on the basis of further literature research. In the second chapter, risk management itself is then broken down into its individual components and analysed in more detail. Prevention, which plays a decisive role in relation to the elaboration for dm, is particularly striking here. As a preventative measure, the extent to which dm's locations in the neighbouring countries: Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia and Italy could temporarily supply Austria's stores on a pro rata basis. The first step was to determine how many items Austria itself has in its product range. There are 11659 different articles. These were then categorised using an ABC analysis in order to prioritise items where necessary, which is then important for the allocation later. The most important step was now to find out how large the overlap is between the Austrian articles and those of the neighbouring countries. Looking at all countries, 42% of the articles (around 4800 articles) overlap. The country with the largest individual overlap is Slovakia with 31%. As the countries only have limited capacities available, the intersecting quantities of articles must be divided between the countries. It should be noted that, on the one hand, the capacities must be adhered to and on the other hand, the suppliers must not be divided up. This means that if an article from the supplier L'Oréal Czech Republic is allocated. If the remaining articles supplied by L'Oréal can only be allocated to the Czech Republic, insofar as a large proportion is available there at all, even if there are other L'Oréal articles in Hungary, for example, these will then be cancelled. As a result, 2451 of the almost 4800 articles remain, which can be taken over by the five countries. The supply of these items has therefore been secured.1

Date of Award	2025
Original language	German (Austria)
Supervisor	Mátyás Gritsch (Supervisor)