Automated Inventory Control System for a University Cafeteria Management

Abstract

Background: The manual method of inventory control is labor intensive, costly, and error-prone and cannot ensure the inventory remains up-to-date due to oversight and internal shrinkage. With the proposed system, cafeteria inventory can be updated in real time.  The automated system allows inventory status to be determined and recorded. Objectives: This paper presents the design and implementation of an automated inventory control system for a University Cafeteria in Nigeria. Methods: The system is designed to efficiently handle the movement and tracking of goods without human involvement.  The study outlines the main concepts of the analysis and design methodology of the proposed system, compares it to the existing and goes further to explain the design and implementation of the system using Python as the primary programming language; it uses an object oriented database. The validation of the finding of the new technique is done by observation and interview of the users. Results: The designed system in this study is able to efficiently handle the movement and tracking of goods without human involvement. It allows inventory status to be determined and recorded and automatically update. Conclusions: Based on the results obtained from this study, we  recommend that Universities all over the world should adopt the automated cafeteria inventory management systems in order to avoid the pitfalls associated with manual  management system.

Keywords: Cafeteria, Inventory, Inventory management systems, Universities