Assessing the inventory management practices, a case of manufacturing firms in Hawassa city, Ethiopia

The purpose of this study was to assess inventory management practices in the case of manufacturing firms in Hawassa City. The study adopted a descriptive research design which allowed the collection of primary and secondary data through structured questionnaires and document review respectively. Purposive sampling approach was employed to identify fifty (50) employees directly involved in inventory management operations. The collected data was analysed with the aid of the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) Version 23 and Microsoft Excel 2016 Software. The study revealed that the company under investigation experiences a lot of inventory management procedures to keep their stock always available to meet customer demands. They have a very good inventory management practices. However, it was revealed that, for some of the companies faced with serious long lead time challenges due to bureaucratic procedures in ordering parts leading to the cancellation of purchase orders and losing customers. Finally, it is recommended that the companies have to remove some of the bureaucratic management styles to cope up with the dynamic marketing environment and exist for a long period of serving their customer.