An Assessment on The Role of Inventory Management on the Customer Satisfaction in Public Institutions

Abstract

The study examined the role of inventory management on the customer satisfaction. The study tests the three objectives, ie to examine whether the adoption of ICT in managing inventories affects customer satisfaction, to find out whether the inventory management affects customer satisfaction and to examine whether the experience and competence of the procurement personnel influence customer satisfaction. The study employed a case study design and the unit of analysis was the MSD staff from Mwanza Branch. The key informants includes Procurement and stores personnel. The study used a sample size of 70 respondents. The judgmental sampling technique was used. Primary and secondary data were collected from the field. Data were analyzed using the Simple Descriptive statistics. The study finding shows that there is a positive relationship between Information and Communication Technology (ICT) adoption, Inventory management and Customer satisfaction. The study revealed that the adoption of ICT could ensure an effective inventory management thereby improving the customer satisfaction. The research study concludes that the adoption of ICT in managing inventories is highly influencing the customer satisfaction by ensuring the reducing the order errors, having an accurate Inventory forecasting, reduction of the operation costs , saving the customers on time and reduction of the stock out costs. The study recommends that the public institutions could establish a stockholding or inventory management policy in order to ensure uninterrupted flow of materials or supplies in the organization. Uninterrupted flow of materials or supplies would influence the customer satisfaction.