Inventory management and sustainability of small scale businesses in Uganda

Abstract

Inventory management plays a crucial role in enhancing effectiveness and efficiency in handling inventory of business firms. The objectives of the study are to find out the relationship between material resource planning, continuous replenishment, distribution resource planning, vendor managed inventory and sustainability of small businesses therefore this is an assessment of inventory management on sustainability of small businesses in Uganda. The research design adopted in this study was a case study design. The study population included the employees of hardware world limited Uganda, a total of 40 respondents were selected for the study, simple random sampling and purposive sampling were used to select respondents in the field. The questionnaires were used and administered to the employees working in the company. The study revealed that there is a relationship between inventory management and sustainability of small businesses. The study recommends that businesses should build a long-term motivational spirit amongst employees whereby the emphasis is not on how to share their experience with the new employees through orientation training, job security, employee’s benefits and the retirement packages hence fostering proper performance. This can only be possible if both parties are working together toward a win-win kind of relationship. Therefore some suggestions were made prior to concentrate only on inventory of finished products in relation to customers demand. If there would be more resources available, it would be interesting to study both providers and customers and then compare them.