Inventory Management Strategies for Perishable Materials: A Comparative Study

Procurement Management and Global Sourcing
OMGT 1070
Assignment 2: Inventory Management
Arief Auliansyah (s3582882)
Yamon Htoo Zin (s3607919)
Jia Ying Lim (s3681455)

Abstract
The purpose of this research article based paper is to compare and analyse the three-research
articles and selecting three cases that are related on three small enterprises. To fulfil the
purpose of this paper, comparative summary of research articles from three chosen articles
was conducted. In the second section three selected cases were chosen to compare the core
problems from the cases. However, three selected solutions are given on different difficulties.
The paper critically determine the inventory management strategies for the perishable
materials. In these articles the authors address the concerns of the inventory management of
wasted materials due to short shelf life of materials. The paper evaluate the problems,
analysis and provide the recommendation. Similarly, for the comparative study, the paper
studies another articles to empirically analyses inventory positioning for the pertinent
operations. The articles illustrate that inventory positioning is a technique useful in
accomplishing the demands, position products and target users in the market place. Finally,
analysis of the last article entails the measured approach to food-inventory management,
which illustrate the best reorder level where one offers safety stock yet does not overfill the
freezer. The research methodology used in the first article comprises the identification,
literature review, data collection and analysis, and finally recommendation. The
identification of the problems is centred on the present data offered by the restaurant. In the
article 2, the writer performs a descriptive methods grounded on the observation as the
means of collecting information rather than examine records. In the analysis of the article
three, the author poses RFID system to identify the solutions. Solutions are suggested for
all the case studies such as forecasting on the historical data analysis, improving the selection
of supplier and their competencies, and finally targeting the right merchandises and
forecasting effectively. According to the conclusive evidence of all articles, inventory
management is vital to plan on the replenishment

Table of Content
1.0 Introduction 2
2.0 Comparative Summary of Research Articles 2
3.0 Comparative Case Analysis and suggested solutions of the cases 4
4.0 Implication of The Research Article 4
4.1 Case Study 4
4.2 Micro Enterprise - Restaurant 4
5.0 Conclusion 4
6.0 Reference Lists 4
7.0 Appendix B 4

1.0 Introduction
Due to the advancement of the technology and the globalisation, the issues of the
procurement and inventory management are hotly debated topic among scholars. Fault
estimation can cause losses to the firm with an overstock that result to waste or which
can results to the loss of the sales. The authors recognises the cause of the challenges
is the quantity of each order and the reorder period not set. Similarly, author recognise
match between the projection made by the senior management and the actual sales
which cost the business. The author recommends that keeping the figures of sales can
makes the inventory storage for the firm to be smaller and can reduce stock out of
situation and increase the return on investments. Inventory positioning is useful tool
which can used to accomplish the demands, position the merchandise and targets the
users in the market. When the company keeps the level of excess inventories high, it
can leads to the unstable liquidity. Incorrect planning of items of the order can result to
out of stock or overstock situations which can have large impact on the food industry.
It is worth noting that optimum inventory should be kept on hand is the quantity to
satisfy the user demand each successive reorder time. For the inventory department,
two aspects are important to consider prior to the reordering of the items. Whether a
demand is fixed or variable is of essence. Additionally, if the reorder lead time is
variable or fixed. By having fixed time and demand, the company cannot face any
stock out condition. On the other hand, having variable order lead time and demand,
the company ought to keep specific amount of the safety stock just in case of the down
fall. The following paper critically analyses and evaluate various case studies and
investigates the different aspect of the procurement and inventory management.