Research Paper on:
Inventory Management for a Supermarket

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
References 17 1. Executive Summary Morrisons is supermarket in a follower position, which needs to ensure it maximises its use of resources, One  key aspect of the supermarket industry is the need for control costs while still making sure that there is sufficient stock to satisfy customers. Morrisons seek to control inventory  costs with the use of central warehouses and orders that are based for short term forecast, resulting in highly variable orders. The paper looks at the way that optimal orders  may be determined and puts forwards the argument that the processes involved in economic order quantity, balancing the costs of ordering against the costs of holding stock, could help to  help cut the costs associated with incoming inventory fro the company. 2. Introduction In any business inventory management will be an important part of the way operations are managed.  This is especially true for supermarkets who effectively operate as intermediaries for the sale of goods; taking them from suppliers to sell to customers. This may involve some degree if  vertical integration, but the process is the key element. There are a number of issues that supermarkets face. Stock ties up resources and capital, there may be a high opportunity  cost where too much stock is held and capital is tied up unnecessarily, but if there is insufficient stock then there may be lost sales (Thompson, 2007). Ongoing problems with  insufficient stock could also result in customers shopping elsewhere (Kotler, 2003). Using a UK supermarket as an example, Morrisons1, there is the ability to examine the typical way that  stock control takes place, the problems which are faced by a supermarket and consider a potential solution(s) to those problems. Morrisons is a UK supermarket in a follower