Development of a Sales and Inventory Management of Supermarket

Development of a Sales and Inventory Management of Supermarket

CHAPTER ONE

1.0 Introduction

Sales and inventory management is one of the basic problems of business organizations that need to effectively manage their financial information and stock records. It may cause a lot of paperwork if there is no automated system available. Inventory management is the process of efficiently overseeing the constant flow of units into and out of an existing stock of goods. This process usually involves controlling the transfer units to prevent the inventory from becoming too high or dwindling to levels that could put the operation of the company in jeopardy.

Inventory management is primarily about specifying the size and placement of stocked goods. It is an activity specifying the shape and percentage of stocked goods. Inventory management is required at different locations within a facility or within multiple supply networks to protect the regular and planned course of production against the random disturbance of running out of materials or goods. The scope of inventory management also concerns the fine lines between replenishment and lead time, carrying cost of inventory, asset management, inventory forecasting, inventory valuation, inventory visibility, future inventory price forecasting, physical inventory, available physical space for inventory, quality management, replenishment, returns, defective goods and demand forecasting [1]. Planning and controlling inventory management is concerned with the following basic questions:

Which items and how much of them should be in stock?
Where to store them?

How is the re-order point defined?

To compete more effectively in a global marketplace, firms must understand the issue of inventory control and align their purchasing to the diverse environments in which they operate. It is a paradox to note that the organizations often complain of the non-availability of some items to meet their requirement and the finance department is facing the problem of increasing locked up capital in assorted inventory. Inventory constitutes the most significant part of current assets in organizations. Because of the relative largeness of inventories maintained in business organizations, a considerable sum of an organization’s fund is being committed to them. It thus becomes imperative to manage inventories effectively to avoid unnecessary costs and ensure a high level of customer service [2].

In fast-food restaurants, sales are done regularly and as the stock level of each product is sold, the stock reduces and this affects the inventory level. For the management of fast food, restaurants to be able to get reports of the inventory level and reports of daily sales, a sales and inventory management systems are needed to aid the manager of the fast-food restaurant in knowing when they should re-order more stock, update inventory and also view sales financial information report.

1.1 Statement of the Problem

The following problems were identified in the existing system in the case study:

Items are unknowingly out of stock, leading to hasty buying of goods because of low stock levels.
There are cases of inaccurate recording or poor centering of some data/information which is an indication of poor inventory management.
It is time-consuming to obtain reports of sales made daily.

1.2 Aim and Objectives of the study

The study aims to develop sales and inventory management of supermarkets. The following are the objectives of the study to realize the aim:

To develop a system that will aid the easy management of stock records.

To design a system that will update stock levels as they are being sold to enable the fast-food restaurant to know when stock level is low.

To design a system that will help in proper record keeping of sales and inventory.

To develop a system that will enable easy access to sales record reports.

1.3 Significance of the Project

The significance of the study is, that it will provide the management of the fast-food restaurant with a more effective system to enable them to manage their sales and inventory record. It will enable the management of the fast-food restaurant to know when they should re-order for stock of any item that has reached the registered re-order level. It will provide the management of the fast-food restaurant with a means of obtaining sales and inventory reports. Also, it will aid in accurate computation of sales transactions and easy updating of inventory records. The study will also serve as useful reference material to other researchers seeking related information on the research topic of sales and inventory management.

1.4 Scope of the Study

This study covers the development of a sales and inventory management supermarket using Oliver Tweets supermarket in Ikot Ekpene as a case study. It covers the development of a web-based system to manage sales and inventory records.

1.5 Organization of the Research

This research work is organized into five chapters. Chapter one is concerned with the introduction of the research study and it presents the introduction, statement of the problem, aim and objectives of the study, significance of the study, the scope of the study, organization of the research, and definition of terms.

Chapter two focuses on the theoretical background and literature review, and the contributions of other scholars on the subject matter are discussed.

Chapter three is concerned with the system analysis and design. It covers the description of the existing system, analysis of the proposed system, and design of the Proposed System

Chapter four presents the system implementation and documentation. It covers the choice of programming language, analysis of modules, choice of programming language, and system requirements for implementation.

Chapter five focuses on the summary, conclusion, and recommendations provided in this chapter based on the study carried out.

1.6 Definition of Terms

Management: The organizing and controlling of the affairs of a business or a sector of a business.

Inventory: A record of a business’s current assets, including property owned, merchandise on hand, and the value of work in progress and work completed but not sold. Also means the aggregate of those items of tangible personal property which are held for sale in the ordinary course of business, are in process of production for such sales, are to be currently consumed in the production of goods or services to be available for sale.