Abstract
This study is on inventory and stock control management. Five objectives were raised which included; to determine if inventory management policies enable manufacturing industries in Nigeria to respond to customers’ needs, to determine whether inventory and stock management maintain sufficient stock of finished goods for smooth sales operations, to determine whether product availability policies followed by manufacturing in Nigeria enable them to meet customers’ levels of expectation, to ascertain the possibility of disruption in the production schedule of a firm for raw material and stock, to ascertain the relationship between inventory and stock management and the financial performance of the organization . In line with these objectives, two research hypotheses were formulated and two null hypotheses were posited. The total population for the study is 200 Samsung staff from different warehouses in Portharcourt, Rivers state was selected randomly. The researcher used questionnaires as the instrument for the data collection. Descriptive Survey research design was adopted for this study. A total of 133 respondents made up managers, accountants, human resource managers and sales representatives were used for the study.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
- Background of the study
Inventory and stock control Management is critical in operations as inventory is a current asset to a firm. Carrying inventory comes with a certain degree of risk. This risk is a component of the cost of carrying inventory. When a company stocks items in the warehouse there is always the risk that the items may fall in real value during the period they are stored. If a company stored parts for their work centers or equipment, the parts in the warehouse could be worth far less than the price that was originally paid and any losses, excess, obsolete and miss-managed inventory means a reduction in the company equity.  The allocation of resource is a common issue to all organizations. Organizations have to acquire, allocate and control the factors of production which are necessary for the achievement of the business’s objectives. Inventory management as one of the key activities of business logistics, has always been a major preoccupation for the company’s survival and growth. The aim of inventory management is to hold inventories at the lowest possible cost, given the objectives to ensure uninterrupted supplies for ongoing operations. When making decisions on inventory, management has to find a compromise between the different cost components, such as the costs of supplying inventory, inventory-holding costs and costs resulting from insufficient inventories (Hugo, Badenhorst-Weiss and Van Rooyen 2002:169). According to Wild (2002:4), inventory control is the activity which organizes the availability of items to the customers. It coordinates the purchasing, manufacturing and distribution functions to meet the marketing needs. This role includes the supply of current sales items, new products, consumables; spare parts, obsolescent items and all other supplies. Inventory enables a company to support the customer service, logistic or manufacturing activities in situations where purchasing or manufacturing of the items is not able to satisfy the demand. Lack of satisfaction could arise either because of the speed of purchasing or manufacturing is too protracted, or because quantities cannot be provided without stocks. Clodfelter (2003:279) adds that a good inventory control system offers the following benefits: The proper relationship between sales and inventory can better be well maintained. Without inventory control procedures in place, the store or department can become overstocked or under stocked, Inventory control systems provide a business with information needed to take markdowns by identifying slow-selling merchandise. Discovering such items early in the season will allow a business to reduce prices or make a change in marketing strategy before consumer demand completely disappears, Merchandise control systems allow buyers to identify best-sellers early enough in the season so that re-orders can be placed to increase total sales for the store or department, Merchandise shortages and shrinkage, can be identified using inventory control systems. Excessive shrinkage will indicate that more effective merchandising controls need to be implemented to reduce employee theft or shoplifting. Stock control, otherwise known as inventory control, is used to show how much stock you have at any one time, and how you keep track it. It applies to every item you use to produce a product or service, from raw materials to finished goods. It covers stock at every stage of the production process from purchase and delivery to using and re ordering the stock. Efficient stock control allows you to have the right amount of stock in the right place at the right time. It ensures that capital is not tied up unnecessarily, and protects production if problems arise with the supply chain. In this view the researcher wants to investigate the inventory and stock control management.
