Document Type

Closed Project

Publication Date

Fall 2004

Instructor

Timothy Anderson

Course Title

Operations Research in Engineering and Technology Management

Course Number

EMGT 540/640

Subjects

Inventory control -- Applications to restaurant management, Operations research, Technology -- Management

Abstract

Inventory management has always been an important factor in a business. It can affect overall productivity in the management system, and ultimately it affects costs. Small and large-scaled business alike, a well-managed system always delivers good results. The Thai Restaurant is a small-scale business which is run by a family, and using family-style management. Inventory management is done mainly intuitively, strictly by experience and approximations. The restaurant actually had to order at least some amount of items per day, and the amount to order was approximated from the currently in stock to some amount they usually spend on that day.

Focusing on four types of livestock inventory; there are chicken, beef, pork, and shrimp, the model built in this project tries to provide a better solution in managing these items. Using Microsoft Excel and Solver, the model optimizes the inventory control and ordering plan by putting several other factors into consideration such as: preparation costs, carrying costs, discounts, storage capacity, the demands, and any price changes for the following week. Data was collected from the restaurant based on their performance of the last 12 months. The results provide ordering plan per day for a week for each item, putting the demands and any price changes of the following week into consideration.

The results show the fact that the restaurant does not need to order every item each day in small amounts and they can order items on certain days with a certain amount that can meet the demands for several days. This results in cost reduction from cutting the number of preparation costs needed each time ordering is made. It is also shown that by increasing their storage capacity they can save more, and giving them an advantage to be able to tackle problems like price changes, holidays or supplier unavailability, and unexpected raise in demands.

Rights

In Copyright. URI: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).

Comments

This project is only available to students, staff, and faculty of Portland State University

Persistent Identifier

http://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/23440

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