A food-processing-and-distribution company typically stores products in a warehouse before shipping them to customers.
Inventory management is therefore important to the food-processing-and-distribution industry because of the large amount of
products typically stored. Large amounts of stored products increase inventory cost and management cost and can reduce
warehouse efficiency. Restated, inventory management should be the primary focus of the food-processing-and-distribution
industry, especially for perishable foods. This study is therefore important to build up a system to predict possible forthcoming
inventory. This study surveyed experts to identify key issues associated with inventory management in the food-processing-anddistribution
industry, and analyzed sequential patterns to find rules based on analytical results from the survey. This study also
proposed a model for inventory prediction. Through this proposed prediction model, the best accuracy of inventory prediction
could reach up to 66.3%. Through the sequential patterns based on expert opinions, the food-processing-and-distribution industry
can manage inventory efficiently and accurately.