The high fluctuation in costs and availability of raw materials makes the work of a purchasing department increasingly complex. To monitor and predict trends in raw material prices and develop more effective procurement strategies, Würth Italia implemented the Artificial Intelligence technology of Vedrai, an Italian company that develops solutions based on Artificial Intelligence to support the decisions of entrepreneurs and managers.

Vedrai Virtual Agents can analyze millions of internal data and external variables to calculate the future impact of each business decision. Wurth Italia adopted Becky, a Virtual Agent which provides forecasts on availability and costs of raw materials, thanks to the monitoring of macroeconomic and market news and of macroeconomic indicators.

Würth Italia currently serves its automotive, craft, construction and industry markets through 3 logistics centers and a retail network of 200 stores throughout Italy. Becky will support the company’s purchasing office in deciding which products to buy, depending on the availability of selected raw materials. Würth Italia initially decided to monitor five raw materials that represent most of its product offering, to follow their market trends.Roberto Dalsasso, Head of Processes and Supports, Würth Italy

Becky will provide regularly updated forecasts: every week, the Virtual Agent provides data relating to the following three months. Vedrai and Würth Italia plan to extend the use of Artificial Intelligence to other areas, like currency exchange and energy/transport costs monitoring.

"The last 18 months have seen a significant increase in commodity prices in our industry and the trend still seems to grow" says Roberto Dalsasso, Head of Processes and Supports, Würth Italy. "From the collaboration with Vedrai, thanks to AI, we expect to gain efficiency in purchases and to increase the degree of service and cost competitiveness".

"The collaboration with Würth shows that even large companies, and not only SMEs, can clearly benefit from The Artificial Intelligence of Vedrai", says Renato De Marco, Presales Manager of Vedrai. "Our virtual agents, precisely because they are developed with small and medium-sized enterprises in mind, are simple and easily applicable even in the decision-making processes of larger companies such as Würth".