Abstract

The study “Inventory Management Practices and Operational Performance in Fast Food Establishments in Owerri Metropolis” was targeted at revealing the importance and roles of inventory management practices on fast food establishment and how it promotes operational performance. This involves the evaluation of some of inventory management practices like Just in time (JIT), first in first out (FIFO), reorder level (RL), vendor managed inventory (VMI) economic order quantity (EOQ). The study specific objectives were to; determine the influence of Just In Time (JIT) as an inventory management practice on operational performance in fast food establishments in Owerri metropolis, to optimize inventory management by implementing a FIFO approach for perishable items in Owerri metropolis, to identify the impact of reorder level as an inventory management practice on customer satisfaction in fast food establishment in Owerri metropolis, the influence of Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI) as an inventory management practice on operational performance in fast food establishments in Owerri metropolis; and the influence of Economic Order Quantity (EOQ) as an inventory management practice in operational performance in fast food establishments in Owerri metropolis.  The study adopted a survey research design with the use of questionnaire to obtain information from staff of registered fast food organizations in Owerri Metropolis. With an administered sample size of 333 which 293 was retrieved and 40 unretrieved. The Five research questions guided the study. Five research hypotheses were formulated at 0.05 level of significance.  The findings of study reveals that, there is no significant relationship between Just-In-Time (JIT) as an inventory management practice and customer satisfaction in food service establishments in Owerri metropolis, there is a significant relationship between First in First out as an inventory management practice and operational performance in food service establishments in Owerri metropolis. It also shows that there is a significant relationship between reorder level as inventory management practice and operational performance on food service establishments in Owerri metropolis, vendor Managed Inventory (VMI) as an inventory management practice has significant relationship with customer satisfaction in food service establishments in Owerri metropolis and finally, the study revealed that Economic Order Quantity (EOQ) as an inventory management practice has no significant relationship with operational performance in food service establishments in Owerri metropolis. Based on the result of the analysis conducted, the study recommends that; the management of the food service establishment should design, operations and supervise the just-in-time inventory management practices as this will help to it determine the true and fair influence on operational performance, also, that the management of food service establishment should ensure that all store staff are adequately trained to take stock and effectively design inventory management system. The study further recommends that management of food service establishment in Owerri should employ data analyst to assist with insightful inventory analysis. And finally, the study suggests that insight analysis should be conducted to ascertain the true economic order quantity.