An Application of Systems Thinking for Solving Inventory Management Problems

Abstract

Abstract. This study is motivated by the fact that inventory management problem is focused throughout the industrial firms nowadays as well as inventory management problems are not easy to be appropriately solved. According to the concept of systems approach can better give more effective result especially when applied to complex problems. In this paper, we propose a systems thinking framework for solving real-world inventory management problems. The systems thinking framework comes with three case studies to enhance better understanding of how to apply the framework with problems. This study aims to bring about the ideas for solving inventory management problems in more practical fashion. In addition to benefit the development of the proposed framework, the instructors and the industrial firms will gain the high-performing students or workers, who can get to the point of problem and can propose the reasonable solution to effectively dealing with problems. Moreover, this study can be used as a guideline for engineering educators to develop other meaningful methods in advances. We expect that if the case studies are collected much enough, the knowledge-based system for solving inventory management problems can be built for easy investigation to whom have the interest in solving inventory management problems.