Professional Documents
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Acknowledgement
I thank my project supervisor, Ma'am Puja Aggarwal, for providing me this
research opportunity. I acknowledge the continuous support provided by her
throughout the study.
I would like to express my deep sincere gratitude to Prof. Alka Munjal who has
always been a source of inspiration for me.
I also owe many thanks to my senior secondary school teacher Mr. G.S. Mongia
who has influenced my professional career as much as my family.
Finally, many thanks to my great family, especially to my parents.
I would like to thank all my dear friends for their support and presence in my life.
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Abstract
Inventories constitute the most significant part of current assets of a large
majority of companies in India. On an average, inventories are approximately 60%
of current assets in public limited companies in India. Because of the large size of
inventories maintained by firms, a considerable amount of funds is required to be
committed to them. It is, therefore, absolute imperative to manage inventories
efficiently and effectively in order to avoid unnecessary investment. A firm
neglecting the management of inventories will be jeopardizing its long‐run
profitability and may fail ultimately. It is possible for a company to reduce its
levels of inventories to a considerable degree, say 10 to 20%, without any adverse
effect on production and sales, by using simple inventory planning and control
techniques. The reduction in ‘excessive’ inventories carries a favorable impact on
a company’s profitability.
The computerized inventory system is inevitable for large retail stores, which
carry thousands of items. The computer information systems of the buyers and
suppliers are linked to each other. As soon as the supplier’s computer receives an
order from the buyer’s system, the supply process is activated.
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Need to hold inventories:
The question of managing inventories arises only when the company holds
inventories. Managing inventories involves tying up of the company’s funds of
storage and handling costs. There are three general motives for holding
inventories:
• Time ‐ The time lags present in the supply chain, from supplier to user at
every stage, requires that you maintain certain amount of inventory to use
in this "lead time"
• Uncertainty ‐ Inventories are maintained as buffers to meet uncertainties
in demand, supply and movements of goods.
• Economies of scale ‐ Ideal condition of ‘one unit at a time at a place where
user needs it, when he needs it’ principle tends to incur lots of costs in
terms of logistics. So bulk buying, movement and storing brings in
economies of scale, thus inventory.
A company should maintain adequate stock of materials for a continuous supply
to the factory for an uninterrupted production. It is not possible for a company to
procure raw materials whenever it is needed. A time lag exists between demand
for materials and its supply. Also, there exists uncertainty in procuring raw
materials on time on many occasions. The procurement of materials may be
delayed because of other such factors as strike, transport disruption or short
supply. Therefore the firm should maintain sufficient stock of raw materials at a
given time to streamline production. Other factors which may necessitate
purchasing and holding of raw materials inventories are quantity discounts and
anticipated price rise. The firm may purchase large quantities of raw materials
than needed for the desired production and sales levels to obtain quantity
discounts of bulk purchasing. At times, the firm would like to accumulate raw
materials in anticipation of price rise.
Stock of finished goods has to be held because production and sales are not
instantaneous. A firm cannot produce immediately when customers demand
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goods. Therefore, to supply finished goods on a regular basis, their stock has to be
maintained. Stock of finished goods has also to be maintained for sudden
demands from customers. In case the firm’s sales are seasonal in nature,
substantial finished goods inventories should be kept to meet the peak demand.
Failure to supply products to customers, when demanded, would mean loss of the
firm’s sales to competitors, the level of finished goods inventory would depend
upon the coordination between sales and production as well as on production
time.
Objective of the inventory management system:
An effective inventory management should:
• Ensure a continuous supply of raw materials to facilitate uninterrupted
production.
• Maintain sufficient stocks of raw materials in periods of short supply and
anticipate price changes.
• Maintain sufficient finished goods inventory for smooth sale s operation,
and efficient customer service.
• Minimize the carrying cost and time.
• Control investment in inventories and keep it at an optimum level.
In the context of inventory management, the firm is faced with the problem of
meeting two conflicting needs:
• To maintain a large size of inventory for efficient and smooth production
and sales operations.
• To maintain a minimum investment in inventories to maximize profitability.
Both excessive and inadequate inventories are not desirable. These are two
danger points within which the firm should operate. The objective of inventory
management should be to determine and maintain optimum level of inventory
investment. The optimum level of inventory will lie between the two danger
points of excessive and inadequate inventories.
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Maintaining an inadequate level of inventories is also dangerous. The
consequences of underinvestment in inventories are:
• Production hold‐ups
• Failure to meet delivery commitments.
Inadequate raw materials and work in progress inventories will result in frequent
production interruptions. Similarly, if finished goods inventories are not sufficient
to meet the demand of customers regularly, they may shift to competitors, which
will amount to permanent loss to the firm.
The aim of inventory management, thus, should be to avoid excessive and
inadequate levels of inventories and to maintain sufficient inventory for the
smooth production and sales operation. Efforts should be made to place an order
at the right time with the right source to acquire the right quantity at the right
price and quality.
Inventory management techniques:
In managing inventories, the firm’s objective should be in consonance with the
shareholders, wealth maximization principle. To achieve this, the firm should
determine the optimum level of inventory. Efficiently controlled inventories make
the firm flexible. Inefficient inventory control results in unbalanced inventory and
inflexibility. The firm may sometimes run out of stock and sometimes may pile up
unnecessary stocks. This increases the level of investment and makes the firm
unprofitable. To manage inventories efficiently, answers should be sought to the
following two questions:
• How much should be ordered?
• When should it be ordered?
The first question, ‘how much to order’ relates to the problem of determining
economic order quantity (EOQ) and answered with an analysis of costs of
maintaining certain level of inventories. The second question, when to order,
arises because of uncertainty and is a problem of determining the re‐order point.
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Economic Order Quantity (EOQ):
It is that inventory level that minimizes the total of ordering and carrying costs.
Ordering Costs:
The term ordering costs is used in case of raw materials (or supplies) and includes
the entire costs incurred in the following activities:
• Requisition
• Purchase
• Ordering
• Transporting
• Receiving
• Inspecting
• Storing (store placement)
Ordering costs increase in proportion to the number of orders placed. The clerical
and staff costs, however, do not have to vary in proportion to the number of
orders placed, and one view is that so long as they are committed costs, they
need not be reckoned in computing ordering cost. Alternatively, it may be argued
that as the number of order increases, the clerical and staff costs tend to increase.
If the number of orders are drastically reduced, the clerical and staff force release
now can be used in other departments. Thus, these costs may be included in the
ordering costs. It is more appropriate to include clerical and staff costs on a pro‐
rata basis. Ordering costs increase with the number of orders, thus the more
frequently inventory is acquired, the higher the firm’s ordering costs. On the
other hand, if the firm maintains a large inventory levels, there will be few orders
placed and ordering costs will be relatively small. Thus, ordering costs decrease
with the increasing size of inventory.
Carrying Costs:
Costs incurred for maintaining a given level of inventory are called carrying costs.
They include storage, insurance, taxes, deterioration and adolescence. The
storage costs comprise cost of storage space (warehousing cost), stores handling
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costs and clerical and staff service costs (administrative costs) incurred in
recording and providing special facilities such as fencing, lines, racks etc. Carrying
costs vary with inventory size. This behavior is contrary to that of ordering costs
which decline with increase in inventory size. The economic size of inventory
would thus depend on trade‐off between carrying costs and ordering costs.
Re‐order point:
The re‐order point is that inventory level at which an order should be placed to
replenish the inventory. To determine the re‐order point under certainty, we
should know:
• Lead time
• Average usage
• Economic order quantity
Lead time:
Lead time is the time normally taken in replenishing the inventory after the order
has been placed.
Safety stock:
The demand for material may fluctuate may fluctuate from day‐to‐day or from
week‐to‐week. Similarly, the actual delivery time may be different from the
normal lead time. If the actual usage increases or the delivery of inventory is
delayed, the firms can a problem of stock‐out which can prove to be costly for a
firm. Therefore, in order to guard against the stock out, the firm may maintain a
safety stock. It is the minimum or buffer inventory as cushion against expected
increased usage and/or delay in delivery time.
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The inventory management process by THE FLORENCE STORE.
When asked, the cashier/owner of the store told that they maintain stocks of
FMCG as well as pharmaceuticals as per the requirement of the locality. The
consumption of FMCG is informed to be very high.
• The store has installation of computerized inventory management system.
• A database of inventories is automatically maintained by the system.
• It keeps track of what comes in and what goes out.
• As soon as the inventory reaches the re‐order point, the system
automatically reminds them to order that particular commodity.
• They, then place the required order using telephonic communication.
Three most selling FMCG goods have been identified and have been studied for
the inventory management:
Min. Average Max.
• Shampoo
¾ Sunsilk 5 20 25
¾ Garnier 5 35 40
¾ Head and shoulder 5 25 30
¾ Dove 5 30 35
• Soap
¾ Lux bodywash 10 90 100
¾ Lux 10 90 100
¾ Lifeboy 10 80 90
¾ Dettol 10 110 120
¾ Dove 10 90 100
• Toothpaste
¾ Closeup 5 50 55
¾ Colgate 5 60 65
¾ Pepsodent 5 40 45
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EOQ of FLORENCE:
There is no exact or rigid EOQ, instead the quantities short of max. units are
placed as an order quantity.
Ordering Costs:
It is nil for this store as the supplier charges no delivery costs to them.
Carrying costs:
Was not disclosed. The store owner looked more haphazard, when asked about it.
Re‐order point:
The Computerized inventory management system automatically reminds to place
an order when the inventory reaches the min. point.
Lead time:
It was informed to be 48 hrs.
Safety stock:
The store does not have any such concept, instead it does have a minimum and a
maximum limit. It just tries to maintain the max. limit of the stock.
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References:
• Financial Management, 9th edition by I.M. Pandey. ISBN – 81‐259‐1658‐X
• Financial Management, 8th edition by I.M. Pandey. ISBN – 81‐259‐0638‐X
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inventory_control_system
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inventory