Importance of keeping transport and inventory Inventory and transport are critical elements in managing a successful supply chain or logistics network. Organizations keep an inventory to reduce the time lags that are present in the supply during the flow of goods from one stage to the other. Inventories (Eckerson, 2009) ensure economies of scale to the organization through bulk buying of goods as compared to buying one item when required by the customers. Inventories also serve to reduce uncertainties caused by demand, supply by acting as buffers. Inventory management addresses issues such as how many goods are to be ordered when an order is to be placed and what safety stocks are available. Transport on the other hand serves a critical role in the flow of goods from the producers to the final consumers (Khadaroo and seetah, 2008). Today’s organizations are on the lookout for ways through expanding their businesses to reach more customers efficiently and without incurring unnecessary overheads. This requires them to keep proper transport management systems to optimize their transportation systems. The organization has to choose the best mode of transport, routing, and also scheduling process. Key performance indicators The performance of an organization or business is determined by many factors. By developing Key Performance Indicators an organization can narrow down these factors to a small number of key indicators that are easier to keep track of (Skibniewski and Ghosh, 2009). In an organization Key Performance Indicators are used to measure the performance of factors that are critical to the success of the organization. There are several reasons why business organizations must measure their performance using Key Performance Indicators. Most organizations use Key Performance Indicators internally for learning and hence improving on past mistakes to achieve the set organizational goals. Evaluation reports such as financial reports come in handy when organizations need to report their progress to stakeholders. Paulson and Hughes (2006, pp. 59-65) argue that since Key Performance Indicators are used to measure the performance of an organization, it is necessary to ensure that the selected indicators are easily quantifiable. This is of utmost importance if these Performance Indicators are to be of any value to the success of the business. The modes of quantification vary according to the nature of the business an organization is involved in (Poneman and Elsman, 1992). This is done to ensure that all the designed Key Performance Indicators reflect quantities that are critical to the success of the organization. In addition, the method to be used to calculate the indicator and its units must be spelled out (O’Brien, 2010). It is, therefore, necessary, that an organization selects Key Performance Indicators that reflect the goals it wants to achieve. This way the data collected can be effectively used to determine the next step towards organizational success. Five key performance indicators for both transport and inventory One of the Key Performance Indicators involved in inventory management is inventory turnover. Inventory turnover is used to show the number of times stock or inventory has been sold and replaced during a specified period (Aghahowa and Stephen, 2007). It is calculated by finding the ratio between the total goods sold within a specific period and the average inventory available at