Illustrate four areas in which controlling can be applied in your area of specialisation take note of

the following: justify the application of controlling in each area (20marks)

Controlling is one of the managerial functions like planning, organizing, staffing and directing.
Definition' Controlling is the measurement and correction of performance in order to make sure
that enterprise objectives and the plans devised to attain them are accomplished.

In the purchasing and supply department controlling serves as a major role. It is an important
function as it helps to check the errors and to take the corrective action so that deviation from
standards are minimized and stated goals of the organization are achieved in a desired manner.
Controlling can be applied in physical resources the control includes inventory (control)
management, stock-taking, stock checking or stock tracking and quality control.

1.Inventory control

Inventory is of great importance to an organisation. Inventory is involved with costs that is

ordering costs due to stock outs and holding costs due to overstocking. Inventory control aims to
minimise the costs associated with inventory. Inventory control is an important feature of
purchasing activities. An organisation will have to implement ways to control flow of inventory.

Just in time inventory control system

It is referred to as zero inventory system or stockless system. It is an inventory control system

that schedules materials to arrive and leave as they are needed. With just in time organisations
make smaller and frequent orders of raw materials. Its main objective is to eliminate wastes that
is anything above the minimum amount of equipment, materials, parts, spares and workers time
which are absolutely essential to add value to the product or service.it can be called demand pull
system because items are produced or ordered only when they are needed by the next stage in
production process.

Just in time have advantages as it helps eliminate costs associated with holding stock as the
inventory levels dramatically reduce. However just in time can hinder the operations of an
organisation if not handled appropriately that Is the entire production line may shutdown if the
needed materials or parts are not available when needed.

2.Stock-tacking

This involves recording the amounts of stock an organisation holds. It is involves physical
counting.
Stocktaking-Physical inventory counting

Most businesses perform a physical stocktake once or twice a month. It involves counting the
number of units of inventory a company holds in stock. When the stocktake is being conducted
all the figures will be recorded on stock sheets. Managers would need to conduct controlling in
physical inventory counting because actual inventory is often different from the inventory
tracked. Discrepancy may reflect errors or unauthorised withdrawals, including theft. Managers
who do not conduct inventory counting will experience shortages. It gives organisation
knowledge of when to order and when not to order

3.Stock checking

This involves the tracking of inventory and checking of inventory closely.

Bar code technology

Before computers tracking inventory was a tedious and time consuming task it was difficult to
keep accurate inventory records. Employees often forgot to record transactions. Bar coding helps
and reduce errors in inventory tracking. Mostly items are marked with bar code, patterns of
codes and space that an electronic scanner recognizes.

ABC classification system

This is a method of managing inventory based on their total value of their usage per unit time.
Within the organisation products or materials, group A account for the greatest dollar value of
the inventory. Group B accounts for moderate amounts of the inventory value and group C
accounts for a smaller amount of the inventory value. Items in A are monitored very closely, B
are monitored with some care and items in C are checked occasionally

One of the major advantage of the system is it concentrate on controlling those items that are
most important to the operation. Control of the classification system is the power it brings to
ordering cycles and stock control.

4. Purchasing ,Receiving and inspection

The purchasing personnel are responsible for purchasing activities within the organisation. It is
their responsibility right quantities, right qualities of materials are purchased from the right
suppliers and delivered at the right time at the right place. The department in need of materials
issues a purchase order to the purchasing department on the materials they need. Purchasing
personnel should be able to comply with the purchase order. Implementation of quality control is
vital. Purchase of poor quality materials may hinder the operations of a business also delays in
delivery of the issued materials affect the business.

When the delivery has been made the materials are received and compared with the purchase
order to check if the materials received comply with the purchase order. The materials checker or
the stores personnel inform the user department that materials issued have been received. Control
over the inspection is guaranteed to check if goods are of the right quality or if they are any
breakages.

Importance of controlling

 Controlling increases size of business

 controlling is a motivation for efficient employees
 Helpful in future planning
 Controlling Aids efficiency
 They is a decreases in risk
 Helpful in coordination
 Helpful in decentralisation

CONCLUSION

After a system has been implemented it must be monitored on a daily basis to ensure quality and
operational efficiency. Managers must have a clear sense of what product quality means to their
organisation and they must also be able to control every element of the process including
minimising waste in the production process and controlling the cost of the inventory needed to
supply materials to that process.
REFERENCES

Management and organisational behaviour, LAURIE J.MULLINS 9TH addition

Management a real world approach, Andrew W.Ghillyer the McGraw-Hill companies

Management theory and practices G.A Cole and Phil Kelly