Bundling And Small Business Operations

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to develop and test a model for managing the inventory for a small, student managed food service business.  The Hazell Nut Café offers six coffees, six flavors of ice cream, four teas, hot chocolate, assorted pastries, bottled water, vitamin water, and four other types of cold beverages.  The purveyors for the all supplies, with the exception of dairy products, have on-call deliveries, but pre-set minimums for order quantities.  The dairy company requires a minimum weekly delivery.  After nearly one year of operation, the café’s student-managers are still developing an inventory management system.  The model developed here seeks to provide an easy to understand solution to the supply chain problems encountered by a small business such as the Hazell Nut Café.