Difference between Project Management and Inventory Management

1. Project Management :

Project management, as name suggest, is simply management that focuses on achieving all project goals within given period of time and meet success criteria of company or business or organization.

2. Inventory Management :

Inventory management, as name suggests, is simply management that focuses on organizing and tracking all good or raw materials or end products of company or business or organization.

Difference between Project Management and Inventory Management :

Project Management	Inventory Management
It mainly focuses on management and achievement of planned objectives that can be either outputs or outcomes, profits, etc.	It mainly focuses on management of inventories i.e. raw materials, components, goods and services or finished products.
It is a temporary management process and is closed after projects completion.	It is a permanent management process i.e. an ongoing process.
Project manager have more responsibilities than inventory manager.	Inventory manager have less responsibilities than project manager.
Factors affecting project management includes improper communication, weak project closure, issue in risk management, unavailability of expertise, etc.	Factors affecting inventory management includes financial factors, product type, external factors, suppliers, lead type, etc.
Process of this management includes visualizing, selling and initiating project, planning project, designing processes and outputs, implementing and monitoring project, controlling, and finally closing project.	Process of this management includes ordering, managing, warehousing, packaging, and finally supplying or shipping raw materials, end products or goods and services.
Its benefits include accurate risk management, increase customer satisfaction, improved communication, increase level of expertise, etc.	Its benefits include improve business negotiations, increase product visibility, saves cost, reduce risk of overselling, etc.
Its main objective is to identify methods or techniques that one can use and implement to complete project.	Its main objectives is to maintain and manage inventory at appropriate level simply to avoid or reduce any issue related to unavailability of required inventories.
Type of project management includes PMI’s PMBOK project management, eXtreme Programming project management, Lean project management, etc.	Types of Inventory management include periodic inventory management system, perpetual inventory management system, asset management, etc.
Project management is more difficult than inventory management.	Inventory management is less difficult than project management.

Source: geeksforgeeks.org