All companies are responsible for some type of inventory management. The inventory turnover rate and amount of inventory simply varies by the company and its’ industry. Also, most companies have different ways of keeping track of their inventory and how often they do so.

In this tough economy, McDonald’s is one of the only restaurants that have strived in profitability and success. The company has been doing many things right in the past few years, including handling their inventory. This article compares McDonald’s inventory to Wendy’s, their biggest competitor.

Inventory in the food industry is much different than inventory in a clothing store, for example. McDonald’s, along with any other restaurant, cannot have food sticking around in the store for too long. This is due to the fact that the food can spoil and the last thing any restaurant owner wants is for a customer to become sick from their food. Also, McDonald’s does not want to waste money. Any ingredients in the store that are not being used before their expiration date are a lost cost to the business. These two factors make it very important for McDonald’s to correctly calculate how much inventory they should keep in the store at all times.

Between the years of 1999 and 2000, “McDonald’s had an inventory turnover rate of 96.15”. This is compared to Wendy’s inventory turnover rate of 40.073. This means that the average item at McDonald’s stayed in inventory for approximately four days before being sold. For Wendy’s, it took about ten days for a product to leave the shelves.

In this situation, McDonald’s inventory turnover rate was obviously better than Wendy’s. This means that it took less time for McDonald’s to turn a profit compared to their competitor. Also, it means that customers were getting fresher food than those who opted to visit Wendy’s.

With such a great inventory turnover rate, there is little that McDonald’s can do to improve in this department. However, in the years to come, it would not surprise me if the fast food giant set a new high standard.

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