Applying the Silver-Meal Method to Enhance Efficiency in Raw Materials Procurement with Joint Orders: A Case Study

Abstract

This research aims to improve efficiency and reduce the cost of inventory management in a case study company. The Silver-Meal method is applied to determine the appropriate order quantity and to consider the quantity of multiple items in the joint order. This method has been developed for ease of use, using Visual Basic for Applications on Microsoft Excel. Analysis was performed using data from the company's purchasing and inventory usage over a four-month period in 2022, from a total of 14 companies regularly supplying the case study company. The total cost of inventory control was compared between the case study method and the proposed method. It was found that the percentage improvement in total cost of inventory control of the proposed method compared to the case study method decreased monthly between 2,189 and 4,412 baht, averaging 3,529 baht per month. This equates to an average percentage improvement of 9.47.