Case study report

Best Practices in Inventory management of Food and Beverage Catering
BEST PRACTICES IN INVENTORY MANAGEMENT OF FOOD AND BEVERAGE CATERING
Contents
Executive Summary    2
Introduction    3
Inventory Cycle for Food and Beverage industry    3
Analysis of the given case study:    5
Evident issues or problems with the management    6
Purchasing Phase:    6
Receiving    6
Storage    6
Production    7
Key recommendations for the Inventory cycle    7
Conclusion    8
References    9
Executive Summary
With increasing competition and reducing market shares, it is important for any organization to maintain a good reputation in front of its customers to ensure that their business can prosper in this highly competitive environment. In order to achieve the same, the companies need to ensure that they can serve the customers with the best possible services or product. This report intends to analyze a case of an organization operating in catering (Food and Beverages) industry, “The Gold Coast Convention Centre”, against their inventory management and service delivery practices that might have let them down in front of their key customers.
The report initially studied the negative feedbacks given by the customers of the organization and has identified that there were several issues like Lack of proper ordering system, Lack of experience and Unfamiliarity of the F&B manager with his role,     Possible chances of “Minimal or no quality assessment of the goods received”, Lack of storage efficiency, No standard Recipe structure in place etc. that resulted in a degraded level of services offered to the customer. These issues were clearly aligned with the lack of effective inventory management practices used by the organization.
In order to mitigate these issues, the report has suggested the use of structured ordering system (Perpetual ordering system for purchasing phase) and an in-house product management system, that will focus over enhancing the quality and service delivery of the product offered by the organization, in turn leading to enhanced customer satisfaction levels.
Introduction
Quality management and customer satisfaction are the two most essential pillars of success for any organization. For an organization such as “The Gold Coast Convention Centre” who is dealing in the excessively competitive market of catering services, it is important that they maintain a healthy image in front of their customers with respect to the service quality they offer, but the given case study about their business reflect otherwise. The negative reviews given by the customers emphasize the fact that the practices used for inventory control and management in the organization are not up to the mark. This report aims to highlight the key evident issues in the food and beverage catering or management practices of “The Gold Coast Convention Centre” along with the suggesting some set of best practices that can help them optimize their business process and increase the customer satisfaction level. The report will initially describe the Inventory cycle in Food and Beverage catering industry along with the key responsibilities of the manager at each phase. Thereafter, the report will analyze the inventory cycle management approach of the organization while discussing the key evident issues in their catering and management practices. Towards the end, the report will offer basis recommendations to help the organization build a better core for its operation.
Inventory Cycle for Food and Beverage industry
The inventory cycle for Food and beverage industry (catering services) consist of four key phases including purchasing, Receiving, storage, and production. Figure 1 represents the inventory cycle of the F&B industry graphically.
Purchasing Phase
The Purchasing phase is often associated with the act of buying, that is, the key focus of this phase is to purchase or obtain the right product at the right instance of time. Additionally, the phase also emphasizes obtaining the goods or the product at a right price from a right source or supplier. Purchasing is often refe
ed to as a complex activity as it involves a number of decision making situations for the manager. (BAE IL HYUN, 2013)
Some of the key decisions that an individual as a Food and Beverage manager may have to make include:
· Determining or Deciding “WHAT” to buy?
· Deciding the quantity of the purchase or “HOW” much should he buy?
· Deciding the time instance for the purchase or “WHEN” to buy?
· Deciding the supplier or from “WHERE” to buy?
All these decisions are largely impacted by the factors such as the quality preferences, the financial budget of the organization and the supplier related preferences of the organization?
Receiving Phase
The decisions taken at the time of the purchasing phase are as effective as the follow through or follow up actions taken by the manager during the receiving phase of the inventory cycle. (Mahr, Kalogeras, and Odekerken‐Schröder, 2013)The key focus of the receiving phase is to ensure that the items purchases are actually obtained in their true state.
At this stage the key responsibility of the manager include:
· Ensuring that the quality and quantity of the items received is same as the one ordered or purchased.
· Ensure that organization has adequate space and transportation facilities for receiving the products. (Mahr, Kalogeras, and Odekerken‐Schröder, 2013)
· The delivery period and medium of the goods is mutually agreed by the organization and the vendor.
· The organization has suitable recording system to acknowledge the acceptance of the...