Operations and Service Management: Morrison's Inventory Analysis

This report provides an analysis of the inventory management practices at Morrison, a large retailing company in the UK. It identifies key operational practices such as cost saving, productivity enhancement and customer satisfaction, and critically analyzes their impact on the organization's efficiency. The report evaluates the role of technology, including WMS software, artificial intelligence, GPS tracking, and barcode systems, in optimizing warehouse operations and improving customer service. It also examines the supporting functions linked to inventory management and how they contribute to organizational success. The analysis highlights how effective inventory management helps Morrison achieve its organizational goals, gain competitive advantage, and maintain cost benefits. Techniques such as First In, First Out (FIFO) and Just in Time (JIT) are also discussed, emphasizing their importance in managing inventory effectively. This report is useful for understanding inventory management strategies in the retail sector and how technology can be leveraged to enhance operational efficiency.

Operations and Service
Management

Executive summary
Inventory management is the process of ordering, managing, keeping, and utilizing inventory
appropriately which will help a company to achieve their goal. There are various benefits of
inventory management in retailing company such as satisfying customers, better productivity,
cost reduction and many others. The main findings of the report are that inventory management
helps a company in improving their efficiency to achieve their goal. Secondly, it is also found
that technology plays an important role in inventory management. There are various departments
which help the inventory to get managed within the company.

Executive summary.........................................................................................................................2
Introduction......................................................................................................................................4
Main Body.......................................................................................................................................4
Identify operation management practice within a chosen organization......................................4
Critically analyse how this selected operation management practice impacts the organisation
in regards to efficiency................................................................................................................5
Evaluate how technology could be embedded in this process or evaluate how this has already
been achieved...............................................................................................................................7
What supporting functions are linked to this operation management practice and evaluate how
can they assist with ensuring organisational success?.................................................................8
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................9
References......................................................................................................................................10
Online-...........................................................................................................................................10

Introduction
It is an essential for every organization to manage their operational activities appropriate.
This will help them to achieve their organizational goal effectively (Ahmadi and et. al., 2019).
Inventory management is the process of managing and utilizing stock of company in such a
manner which will help the company to avoid facing the risk of lack of items within the stores. It
is essential for company to manage their inventory appropriately especially in retail industry.
Morrison is one of the largest growing retailing companies in UK which is headquartered in
Bradford, UK. It is founded in the year 1899 by William Morrison. The following report covers
inventory management description of Morrison organization and how it impacts the success of
company. This report also covers technological description which could help the Morrison to
manage their inventory and the ways other departments linked to inventory management
activities.
Main Body
Identify operation management practice within a chosen organization.
Inventory management is the process of ordering, storing, using, and selling a company’s
inventory in an appropriate manner which will provide benefit to company. There are various
kinds of benefits of managing inventory of an organization and few of the benefits are mentioned
below-
Cost saving- A better inventory manager knows that how much inventory is required by the
company and in what quantity due to their effective management (Tejesh and Neeraja, 2018).
Hence, this will help the company y to order only that much inventory which is actually needed.
Therefore, this will help to save the cost of money for spending it on unwanted inventory
requirement.
Enhance productivity- Better inventory management will help the company to enhance their
organizational performance. Especially in context of retailing sector, good inventory
management will help the companies to maintain the items in their stores and make their
customers satisfies. Employees also get engaged in work when they found that company is
having appropriate inventory. Hence, this will enhance productivity of the stores.
Customer satisfaction- Appropriate inventory management of a retailing company will help the
customers to get more satisfied because when a customer is able to find all products within a one

store than he/she is not required to move from store to store to find their required product
(Turrini and Meissner, 2019).
In context of Morrison, they have their own warehouses for storing their products in
bulk and then shift them from their warehouses to their supermarkets and hypermarkets across
the UK. They use various kinds of software and technology to manage their inventory
appropriately. The store manager is required to convey the message to warehouse manager about
the product whichever they need to retain in their store inventories. The warehouse manager
makes sure that the ordered inventory will be reached by the stores on appropriate time. They are
having their own vehicles for shifting bulk of inventories from place to place. This will help
them to track the route and time for receiving inventory by store managers. Secondly, the store
manager of Morrison analyze the products which are having more demand in market so that they
will order some extra quantity of those products only which are having more demand at recent
time. Morrison also focuses to manage their warehouses appropriately and keep the products in
such a manner which become easy to find in future. They divided their warehouses in various
compounds and keep similar kind of product in one compound. This will help warehouse
employees to find the items easily and transport it to required stored.
Critically analyse how this selected operation management practice impacts the organisation in
regards to efficiency
Inventory management of Morrison will help them to achieve their organisational goal and
further impacts the organisation in positive way to create efficacy for the company (Qiu, Qiao
and Pardalos, 2019). There are various ways in which effective inventory management will help
the Morrison to achieve their organisational goal effectively. In context of Morrison, their each
store has inventory room and each store is assigned an inventory manager which will record all
incoming and outgoing stocks effectively. Keeping the records appropriately will help the
company to analyse which product is having more demand in market. Secondly, they are able to
satisfy their customers with their inventory management because every retailing customer need
that they will find their required products within one store so that they should avoid to move
store to store to purchase different products. Hence, effective management of inventory will help
the Morrison to fulfil this need of their customers and whenever any customer requires any
product they will quickly offer them. This will further help them to satisfy their customers and
their customers gain motivation to reach the store again next time. Hence, appropriate inventory

management will help the Morrison to gain customer’s satisfaction and develop their profitability
and brand reputation in market.
On the other hand, they are able to increase the total number of their customers by
satisfying them to provide their required products (Straut and Nelson, 2020). Hence, employees
of the stores are also requiring working effectively to explain the features and benefits of their
products. In simple words, appropriate inventory management will also motivate employees to
engage more in their organisational task. Hence, an appropriate engaged employee can help the
company to achieve their goal with efficiency (Morrison Inventory Management, 2022).
Inventory management of Morrison can also help them to gain competitive advantage within the
industry because better offering to customers and lowering the prices will help to attract more
customers and influence them to become loyal customers of the company. Hence, more
customers’ means more market share and it further help the company to become the industry
leader by gaining competitive advantage. Effective inventory management also help the
company to maintain their cost benefit by reducing to invest in those products which are not in
demand. Arranging inventory by Morrison will also help them to analyse their productive and
unproductive activities at inventory management task so that they will eliminate the
unproductive activities from the company and invest more for productive activities only.
Techniques and theories of inventory management-
First In, First Out method- This is the inventory management technique which helps the
companies to effectively manage their inventories for their benefit. According to this technique,
companies will select those items to shift in store which they ordered first (Yang and et. al.,
2020). For example, Morrison, order any item in the month of September and again ordered the
same product in the month of November then the company will use September ordered item first
than November ordered item. This will help the company to save their products from getting
spoiled in case of eatable products and it also help the products to avoid reaching their expired
date in inventory rooms only in case of non-eatable products.
Just in Time- It is form of inventory management where a company is required to work closely
with their suppliers and maintain a good relationship with them so that raw material which is
arrived will be schedule to begin packaging soon. In case of high demand of any product and by
change Morrison face the lack of inventory even in their warehouses than they are required to

use this technique if they are having good relations with their suppliers and order the products as
soon as possible for further packaging and labelling process.
Evaluate how technology could be embedded in this process or evaluate how this has already
been achieved
Technology plays an important role in managing inventory for Morrison. Few of the
technological role in inventory management for Morrison is mentioned below-
WMS software optimising warehouse operations solutions- In context of Morrison, they use
in- DEX WMS Warehouse Management Software which helps Morrison to remote various
picking options to operate effectively (Warehouse Management Software Boosts Stock Picking
Accuracy to 99%, 2022). It also helps them to increase picking accuracy and reduce load time.
This software will help the company to analyse total number of items available in their
warehouses and how much they require to order from their suppliers (Duong, Wood and Wang,
2018). This software keep all records of incoming and outgoing of inventory as well as it also
records the orders from stores of Morrison which they receive. This software helps Morrison to
improve their workflow efficiency. The results of using this software for the company is
mentioned below-
1. Efficiency delivery £1m in annual business profit.
2. The picking accuracy of the company increases by 99%.
3. This software helps the Morrison to get integrated and be connected with other
warehouses of the same company.
Artificial intelligence- With the main aim of drive efficiency and improve customer service,
Morrison has developed a system which uses artificial intelligence and machine learning for
managing their inventory within their 491 stores across the UK (Morrison uses artificial
intelligence to stock its stores and drive sales, 2022). This system will help them to predict that
which stock is needed by which store among 491 stores. This system record sales data, and
precise weather data for the company so that they will predict that in which season or weather
time the specific product is having more demand. Store manager of Morrison also add dates and
time to the system so that on busy days the system will not allow to keep the shelves empty.
GPS tracking system- Morrison also uses GPS tracking system for their inventory management
activities where they can easily track the vehicle which is having their products with the main
aim of placing them from their warehouse to their stores (Kouvelis, Pang and Ding, 2018). This

system will help the company to analyse the shortest route with less traffic to reach at the
destination. Here, Morrison’s truck and vans use this system to analyse the route as well as
appropriate time to reach at stores. The store manager can also track the vehicle while sitting in
their stores and get to know the time remaining to reach the inventory in their stores. This system
is not only used in vehicles only but it is also used in warehouse to analyse which box of item is
placed where so that employee will find it easily. This will help the employees to save their time
to search for the item they require from huge quantity of products in warehouses.
Barcode system- A barcode is unique graphics with numbers or texts and when this barcode is
scanned, the data from the product is instantly transferred to computers (Basa and et. al., 2019).
It is the technology which is used to track the inventory easily and in fastest manner. Here,
company places a barcode to each product in the warehouse and it get scanned by handheld
mobile device.
What supporting functions are linked to this operation management practice and evaluate how
can they assist with ensuring organisational success?
There are various departments which are linked with inventory management and help the
Morrison to manage their inventory appropriately. Few of the department links with inventory
department is mentioned below-
Marketing department and inventory department- Marketing is the department which
is responsible to analyse needs and wants of customers and their preferences. This department
help the inventory department to analyse the demand of product within the market. They directly
communicate with inventory manager and convey them the names of those products which are
having high demand in market so that inventory manager will order additional stock of the same
product which is in demand. On the other hand, they also help the company to predict the
products whose demand can decline in near future so that inventory manager will not invest high
cost and time to manage the arrangement of those products which are having low demand.
HR department and inventory department- HR department is responsible for hiring
and managing employees within the company and they are also having important role in
formulation of organisational policies and guidelines which is essential for employees to follow
to maintain discipline at workplace (Zhang and et. al., 2021). In context of Morrison, their HR
department help the inventory department to hire skilled and talented employees and inventory
manager who have appropriate knowledge to manage their inventories. They also focus to

provide them training from inventory specialist trainers to enhance their skills for organisational
benefit. HR department formulate guidelines and convey it to each department including
inventory department so that their employees will follow them appropriately. Secondly, they are
also responsible to check whether employees in inventory department are performing well or not
so that they will terminate unproductive employees and hire more productive employees.
Sales department and inventory department- Sales department is responsible for
analysing and improving sales of their product in the market. In context of Morrison, their sales
department will convey details about the product which are having better sales in market. Hence,
this will help the inventory manager to analyse which product they need to order in more
quantity as compared to other products.
IT department and inventory department- IT department will help the inventory
department to provide those essential software and tools and machines which will help them to
conduct their work effectively and easily. They are also responsible for solving the technical
issues faced by inventory department. They keep on updating the software which is used by
inventory department so that they will record appropriate and adequate amount of stocks for their
organisational benefit.
Conclusion
From the above information it is concluded that inventory management is the process of
managing, ordering, storing and utilizing inventory appropriately by a company. It helps a
company to satisfy their customers, reduce cost, reduce wastage, and improve productivity and
many others. Inventory management also helps a company to gain competitive advantage within
their industry. In context of retailing sector, inventory management help them to satisfy their
customers because customers in this industry need to prefer those stores for shopping which are
having large variety of products in appropriate quantity. Technology also plays an important role
in managing inventory for a company. GPS tracker will help the company to track their
inventory vehicle’s route and exact time for the vehicle to arrive at the stores. Secondly, little
software will further help the inventory manager keep records and manage their inventory well.
it is also concluded that there are various departments which interact with inventory department
and help them to their operations. For example, marketing department will help inventory
department to analyse the marketing demand, IT department will help them to provide

maintenance of their machines and tools and HR department will help them to hire skilled and
talented employees within the inventory department to manage the work effectively.

References
Books and Journals
Ahmadi, E. and et. al., 2019. Inventory management of surgical supplies and sterile instruments
in hospitals: a literature review. Health Systems, 8(2), pp.134-151.
Basa, J.J.A. and et. al., 2019. Smart inventory management system for photovoltaic-powered
freezer using wireless sensor network. International Journal of Emerging Trends in
Engineering Research.
Duong, L.N.K., Wood, L.C. and Wang, W.Y., 2018. A review and reflection on inventory
management of perishable products in a single-echelon model. International Journal of
Operational Research, 31(3), pp.313-329.
Kouvelis, P., Pang, Z. and Ding, Q., 2018. Integrated commodity inventory management and
financial hedging: A dynamic mean‐variance analysis. Production and Operations
Management, 27(6), pp.1052-1073.
Qiu, Y., Qiao, J. and Pardalos, P.M., 2019. Optimal production, replenishment, delivery, routing
and inventory management policies for products with perishable inventory. Omega, 82,
pp.193-204.
Straut, C.M. and Nelson, A., 2020. Improving chemical security with material control and
accountability and inventory management. Journal of Chemical Education, 97(7),
pp.1809-1814.
Tejesh, B.S.S. and Neeraja, S.J.A.E.J., 2018. Warehouse inventory management system using
IoT and open source framework. Alexandria engineering journal, 57(4), pp.3817-3823.
Turrini, L. and Meissner, J., 2019. Spare parts inventory management: New evidence from
distribution fitting. European Journal of Operational Research, 273(1), pp.118-130.
Yang, L. and et. al., 2020. Online linear optimization with inventory management
constraints. Proceedings of the ACM on Measurement and Analysis of Computing
Systems, 4(1), pp.1-29.
Zhang, J.X. and et. al., 2021. Joint optimization of preventive maintenance and inventory
management for standby systems with hybrid-deteriorating spare parts. Reliability
Engineering & System Safety, 214, p.107686.

Online-
Morrison Inventory Management, 2022 [Online] Available Through:
https://www.studymode.com/essays/Morrison-Inventory-Management-85835031.html/
Warehouse Management Software Boosts Stock Picking Accuracy to 99%, 2022 [Online]
Available Through:
https://www.principallogisticstechnologies.com/warehouse-management-software-morrisons-
supermarket-case-study/
Morrison uses artificial intelligence to stock its stores and drive sales, 2022 [Online] Available
Through:
https://internetofbusiness.com/morrisons-ai-stores-sales/#:~:text=and%20drive
%20sales-,Morrisons%20uses%20artificial%20intelligence%20to%20stock%20its%20stores
%20and%20drive,replenish%20stock%20in%20its%20stores./