THE ROLE OF INVENTORY CONTROL IN THE EFFECTIVE MANAGEMENT OF AN HEALTH INSTITUTION LIKE THE UNIVERSITY OF UYO TEACHING HOSPITAL
INTRODUCTION
In general, supplies, equipment and materials are the very lifeblood of any industrial concern, government agency or commercial enterprise. No organization can operate without them.
The efficiently of any activity, for the production of goods or services, depends upon having supplies, equipment and materials available in the proper place and time. A store is a general word used for describing materials kept in storehouse and stockyards.
The materials held in stores form a large part of the organization expenditure. In the pharmaceutical and medical industry, this represents about 70% of the total expenditure and is usually, the largest single item on the balance sheet.
Medical supplies briefly means the need to have enough drugs, dressing and equipment used in health care hospitals in Nigeria and can conveniently be grouped into two parts – private Hospital and public Hospital.
PRIVATE HOSPITAL: Are those established and owned by individual or group of individual.
PUBLIC HOSPITAL: Are in the group of government categories through their various ministries of health. Among those federally established are the University teaching hospitals. National otherwise called specialist Hospital. Between 60 – 70% of the capital expenditure of an establishment goes into procurement. Though the cases study is service oriented in nature, yet, its peculiar nature of being specialist hospital involves buying and maintenance procedures.
The natures of the services provided have called for continuous and regular supply of those medical facilities all of which can be utilized almost immediately. This calls for a standardized, well-structured and articulated stores department to be managed by seasoned professionals.
Without reining words, University of Uyo Teaching Hospital is specialist Hospital mead for the treat. Victims and those involved in war, home accident and some other special and peculiar cases.
This peculiar nature of dealing with lives calls for efficiency and quality in all its services and especially the stores administration who, by its nature, is the custodian of the drugs equipment and all other materials needed for the medical operation. Lack of seriousness on the services rendered by each of the functional departments and especially the stores may lead to perpetual disability or loss of life.
A vivid view of the above illustration suggests more prompt and qualitative but people oriented service towards achieving the goals for which the hospital was established.
To this extend, therefore, there must be an assurance of the envisaged quality.
Understanding inventory is a real eye opener and happy medium for any organization. Therefore organization must clearly be careful not to over invest in inventory or under invest in inventory.
The value of inventory held in store can represent a very significant fraction of the voted finds of a government or private organizations and because of this an efficient stock control system is an essential fundamental requirement of any modern stores or inventory management in any organization.
DEFINITION OF INVENTORY
Inventory is a term that has been explained in various ways by various scholars, inventories are stocks of the product a company is manufacturing for sale and components that makes up the product. They are r and-materials, work in progress and finished goods. Inventories are the stocks of material or finished goods which a organization keeps in anticipation of demand or consumption.
In the past, inventory management was not seen to be necessary. In fact excess inventories were considered as indication of wealth. Management by then considered overstocking beneficial. But today firms have started to embrace effective inventory control. The goal of effective inventory control is to be sure that optimum levels of inventories are available that there are minimal stock outs, and that inventory is maintained in a safe place and is always really accessible to the proper personnel.
At this point, it is therefore important that we understand the subject matter of the research work and examine whether the University of Uyo as a service industry and a government concern will benefit from this research work.
Inventory was defined as the stock of any item used in the production operation or service delivery. The word “inventories,” “stocks” and “stores” are used inter-changeably in the literature of this work. They mean the same thing but have very slight differences. These differences will be properly discussed in chapter two.
Inventories make up a large part of organization’s working capital and therefore, it is very important to control them economically, effectively and efficiently. An organization that neglects the control and management of its inventories ruin the risk of jeopardizing its critical operations. It is therefore absolutely imperative to manage inventories properly in order to avoid unnecessary investment that is over stock or under stock.
Inventories as the goods an organization has in production, or ready for sale or use. Such goods are not limited to goods an organization deals in that is finished products but it includes all goods directly and/or indirectly which enables the organization to achieve its goals and overall objective. In the University of Uyo, being an Educational institution may not only have the need of chalks, white boards, chalk boards, markers, pens, white board markers, white board stands, laboratory equipment, chemical reagent, course registration forms, student information Handbook, answer booklets, students irregularity forms, fee clearance booklets, treasury receipt, revenue receipt, stationeries, matriculation and graduation robes but have stock of filling cabinets, air conditioners, ceiling fans, writing desks swivel chairs, diesel, fuel, result bookless, carpets, blinds, etc. these stocks are used directly and indirectly in the conversion process. Infact, the Hospital system has a greater need in the management of its inventories which are classified into four classifications namely:
- Stationary and general stores.
- Furniture and equipment stores.
- Maintenance and technical stores.
- Laboratories stores.
Maintaining inventories is critical for effective services delivery in the Teaching Hospital. Maintaining inventories involves considerable amount of incensement in assets. The acquisition of inventories may be delayed because of such factors as strike transport disruption and short of supply.
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