Date of Award

Spring 2026

Degree Type

Thesis

Department

Moore School of Business

Director of Thesis

David Precht

Second Reader

Keith Skowronski

Abstract

This thesis examines the application of inventory management theory in the small and medium-sized business context, with a specific focus on the food and beverage industry. Drawing on the foundational academic literature spanning from Harris’s EOQ formula in 1913 through stochastic inventory theory, ABC analysis, and just-in-time strategy, this paper establishes the mathematical and operational bases for modern inventory management practice. Although there are proven value to these frameworks, research demonstrates that small to medium sized businesses adopt inventory management systems at lower rates citing cost and implementation as barriers. This thesis argues that the emergence of low-cost inventory and point-of-sale systems has rendered those barriers to be mostly obsolete, and the academic literature has not examined this shift adequately.

To address this gap, an applied research engagement was conducted with Knowledge Perk Coffee Company, a growing chain of coffee shops based in South Carolina. Over nine months, a new inventory management system was implemented, ingredient and supply usages were analyzed across store locations, and guidelines for ordering were created for store managers. The findings demonstrate that fundamental inventory management principles, like reorder points, variance reductions, and order standardizations, are directly applicable in the setting of smaller businesses, regardless of resources available, to produce measurable operational improvements due to an increase of accessible technology.

The results affirm that democratized analytics tools have eliminated barriers to entry for small businesses, and the remaining obstacle is adoption rather than access. Implications for SMB founders, practitioners, and future researchers are discussed.

First Page

1

Last Page

29

Rights

© 2026, Mateo J. Moyon

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