Assessment  of  Inventory  Management  and  Control  Practicein  the  case  of  Arba Minch University
Creators: name: Geresu Beyene
Publisher: name: National Academic Digital Repository of Ethiopia
Year: 2016

description: Inventory includes raw materials purchased parts, and work in process materials. Inventory affects 
successful  performance  of  organizations  activities.  Hence, Problems  related  with  inventory 
management  and  control  should  be  addressed  for  smooth  running  of  the  organization  activities. 
The central focus of this study is investigating the inventory management and control practices in 
Arba Minch University. Descriptive research method is selected to carry out the current inventory 
management and control practice of the university. The populations of the study are one hundred 
seventeen employees  directly  involved  with  inventory  management  and  control  activities  of  the
university. They comprise heterogeneous group (Top management; College deans, Directors and 
Department  heads,  property  administration,  purchase,  audit,  workshops  and  library  book  store 
personals). To take the sample from each group the researcher used stratified sampling technique. 
The major finding of this study reveals that: The university inventory purchase plan is not based on 
scientific inventory replenishment plan; inventory plan lacks consistency with their annual plan as 
a result, there is rush purchase order. The lead time, of the  university is not known. there is no 
analyzed  information  about  ordering,  carrying  cost  and  economic  order  quantity  (EOQ); 
Depreciation  value  of  fixed  assets  of  the  university  such  as  buildings,  equipments  machineries 
computers etc  is  not  known;  According  to  the study finding  purchase  and  property  management 
employees don’t have sound knowledge of materials management to provide service of their level 
best  and  cope  with  the  dynamic  technological  advancement  to  accomplish  successfully  their 
assigned responsibility. There is no scientific inventory classification mechanism in the warehouses 
of Arba Minch University. The warehouse of the university have not adequate internal facility as a 
result materials are  kept everywhere in the  available  store space.  There is  shortage of standard 
warehouses  facility  in  the  university.  The  size  of  the  warehouses  is  not  large  enough  to 
accommodate the inventory of the university; as a result various types of inventory materials are 
kept everywhere outside the warehouse in a situation that expose them to moisture and temperature 
related  factors  that  can  deteriorate  them  daily  (Geography  department  material,  equipments  of 
Chamo campus which are stored at the corridor of the library from 2002- till now and the nuclear 
moisture density gauge which is buried in the cave like cement structure are good example of this 
phenomena). No one of the warehouses is secured from incident such as fire and related damage. 
There is no organized warehouse information management system (WIMS). There is student’s food 
grains wastage in most of the campus due to lack of flour mill service in the campuses (except main 
campus  and  Abaya  campus).  The  university  does  not  have  organized  data  about  obsolesce 
machineries,  equipments;  according  the  field  observation  of  the  researcher  there  are  enormous 
obsolete machines, equipments, materials and vehicles which needs disposal. The researcher hopes 
that  the  top  management  and  concerned  bodies  should  give  immense  administrative  weight  to 
alleviate  the above inventory  management and control problems  based on the  conclusion drawn 
and proposed recommendation of the study.