Every enterprise finds it necessary to hold ‗stocks‘ for inventory of various items and materials. It would practically be impossible to operate with only one of each item to be sold or used in manufacture or used in office work. A ‗reserve‘ or ‗fund‘ or ‗inventory‘ of each item of material used or sold frequently is therefore maintained so that as items or materials are sold or used they can replaced or replenished from the stocks ‗held in reserve‘. An effective stores management system is therefore is also essential to determine malpractice such as falsification of stock records, unauthorized disposal of stock, stocking manipulation, etc.
Stores management is concerned with ensuring that all the activities involved in storekeeping and stock control are performed efficiently and economically by those employed in the stores. In many cases, it will also encompass the recruitment, selection, induction and the training of stores personnel.
Any manager‘s work comprises of two (2) different aspects:
1. Technical aspect: which is concerned with the work to be performed in the department. Technical work of different manager‘s might vary considerably, thus the technical work of a factory manager will be very different for the technical work of a sales/stores/office manager. Even the technical work of two (2) stores managers working for two (2) different organizations might differ in many areas.
2. Human aspect: which is concerned directly with the people who are employed to perform that work. In the ‗human‘ aspect of the work, all managers must be similar because it involves managing activities of other people.
In a small firm the supplies function may be operated from a single office run by one manager but, in a large organisation, it is necessary to apportion the various duties to separate sections, for example:
1. Identification or vocabulary section
2. Standardisation section
3. Storehouse section
4. Stockyard section
5. Stock control section
6. Records/system updating section
7. Accounts/audit section.
