A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement for the Award of Degree of Masters of Science in Procurement and Supply Chain Management (MSc-PSCM) of Mzumbe University
The study focused at assessing inventory control systems improvement on customer services. The study was based on the following specific objectives; to find out available inventory control policy and system; to determine the effects of information technology infrastructures in improving customer services; to examine if there is proper inventory record keeping in improving customer services and to explore challenges Associated with Inventory Management Control Systems at TANESCO.
Samples of 50 was selected randomly based on their importance, which included senior stores and transports officers, Stores officers, Regional managers, Zonal managers’ Supplies officers, Finance officers and Procurement officers from the five stores. Quantitative and qualitative data collected through questionnaires, interview, documentary reviews and observation were analysed by descriptive statistics and regression by using SPSS.
The study found out that Inventory control policies fits well with existing systems as backed up by 70% of response. The findings indicate that there are good polices that fits well with organisation suppliers due to majority response of about 72%, the availability of neutralities and disagrees could be due to inexperience in the field of procurement or thy are unaware of the presence of those policies. The study also found out that Information Technology Infrastructures contribute in Improving Customer Services at TANESCO as tested by Availability of handling equipment, Availability of enough control rooms, Availability of Enough security systems, Availability of Technological tools (barcode reader, RFID) account for 82% variance in the dependent variable customer service improvement. The study further found out that challenges associated with inventory control system included; The root causes of obsolete stock to different teams is not Identified, delays in Ordering new inventory items in time by supplier or firm, failure in maintaining adequate levels for each of stocks, failure in dealing with excess stock in a cost-effective way, Inventory ordering should be done regularly using data from analytical tools amount.
The study concluded that; presence of technological tools, effective security systems, availability of inventory control policies and a well-established inventory control system facilitates the improvement of customer service of the concerned company.