Effects of Effective Inventory Management on Performance of Business Outlets (a Case Study of Mandera County, Kenya)

Abstract

This study was set to investigate the effects of effective inventory management on performance of Business outlets in Mandera town. Specific objectives were to determine the effects of information technology on effective inventory management in retail outlets, to find out the effects of effective inventory management to customer satisfaction, to determine the relationship between staff skills and effective inventory management, to identify the effects of documentation system on effective inventory management. The researcher used descriptive survey research design for fact-finding study. The research design enables a researcher to gather data at a particular point on time and use it to describe the nature of the existing conditions. A sample of thirty six (36) workers was selected to participate in the study which was thirty percent (30%) of the target population). Simple probability sampling technique was used where the respondents had equal probability of being selected as a representative of the target population. The study revealed that 67% of the respondents were male while the female constituted 33%.The business outlets adhered to the requirement of 30% of either gender. 37% of the respondents had an age of 31-35 years, 33% had an age of 26-30 years, and 17 % had less than twenty five (25) years while 13% had over 35 years. That could imply that majority of employees in business outlets were middle aged probably reason being they tend to retain their employees or employ experienced staff from other sectors. 37% of the respondents were certificate holders, 33% were diploma holders and worrying 7% were masters holders. It showed that most of work in retail outlet was manual work which required less academic qualification .The study further revealed that 67% of the respondents supported usage of IT, 20% did not support the usage where 13% were not sure who could be the cleaners. 63% of the respondents supported the innovation of new technologies while 37% never supported the innovation that could be rigid to change. It was also established that 60% of the respondents said that they were satisfied and those who stated that they were very satisfied and not satisfied had the same percentage. That showed that the services offered by the outlets were recommendable. The study also revealed that a large number (70%) of the respondents were general workers while a small number (7%) were managers .It could be stated that most of the staff were general workers and the percentages of the year of service were almost equal .that showed that the business outlets maintained almost equal number of workers who had served for specific years .The study revealed that 77% of the respondents said that the documentation systems were effective and efficient where only 3% were not sure. That led to effective inventory management. A large number (93.3%) of respondents agreed that improved inventory management helps identify clients’ needs and preferences by business outlets since the owners of business are able to identify the fast moving goods hence making them available all-time leading to high customer satisfaction. On the question on whether improved inventory management reduces stock wastage, 90% of the respondents strongly agreed showing that business outlets are able to track the movement of their goods hence avoiding overstocking which leads to wastage.an equal number 50% of the respondents agreed and strongly agreed that Improved inventory management leads to easy storage and retrieval of materials . This showed that most of business people in Mandera town use coding method for easy identification of their good leading to less time wastage while serving their customers hence high customer satisfaction.