Gaps between inventory management theory and practice: a critical examination of emerging trends from the FMCG industry

This paper attempts to identify the gap between inventory management theory and practice based on the critical examination of the trends in academic research and the practicing world. It also attempts to provide suggestions to potentially bridge this gap. Keeping these objectives in mind, key research publications and articles in the area of finished goods inventory management written in last 30 years by research scholars and practitioners were reviewed. FMCG industry was selected as a benchmark for finished goods inventory management best practices and the divergence of academic research with real life inventory management practices was analysed. Some innovative and thought provoking ideas for increasing the synergy have been suggested. This paper also highlights the recent developments in inventory management practices in FMCG industry and examines the research work in this direction.