inventory management

The procurement of motor-vehicle spare parts through traditional physical markets presents challenges such as difficulty in identifying compatible parts, lack of price transparency, geographic and time constraints, and absence of centralized vendor platforms. This study focused on the design and development of a web-based online marketplace for motor-vehicle spare parts to address these limitations by providing a centralized, secure, and user-friendly platform connecting vendors and customers. The research adopted the Agile methodology using the Scrum framework and implemented a layered system architecture consisting of presentation, application, data access, and data storage layers. The system was developed using PHP for server-side processing, MySQL for database management, and HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript, and the Bootstrap framework for responsive user interface design. Selected spare-parts markets in Benin City, Edo State—Evbareke Market, Uwelu Market, and Igun Market were used as case studies to understand vendor operations and customer needs. The study objectives included designing a marketplace that supports product listing and searching based on vehicle make and model, implementing secure user authentication for buyers and vendors, enabling price comparison and vendor rating features, and testing the system to ensure reliable operation. The implemented system successfully delivered a functional multi-vendor marketplace with advanced search and filtering, vehicle compatibility matching, secure shopping cart and checkout processes, order management, inventory control, and role-based access control. Results demonstrated that the system effectively addresses problems associated with traditional spare- parts procurement by improving accessibility, transparency, and efficiency. Challenges such as database optimization, security implementation, responsive design, and system integration were encountered and resolved. The study concludes that web-based marketplace technologies can effectively transform spare-parts trading and support digital transformation in the automotive industry.

The management of inventory has emerged as an essential operational and strategic element to the survival and development of the small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). This research thus explores how inventory management practices impact the performance of SMEs in Benin City, Edo State. The research specifically examines how Economic order quantity (EDOQ), Just in Time (JIT), ABC Analysis and Safety Stock Management affect the operational and financial performance of SMEs. The survey research design was adopted and data gathered by the use of structured questionnaires administered to a sample of 133 SME owners and managers who were chosen via stratified and simple random sampling methods. Descriptive and inferential statistical tools were applied to analyze the data collected with the help of Statistical Package of social sciences (SPSS). The results showed that there are significant and positive impacts on the performance of the SMEs of all the four inventory management practices; EOQ, JIT, ABC Analysis, and Safety Stock. The research also identified that business attributes like firm size and the number of employees have a significant influence on performance, whereas the degree of formal education among the operators does not always translate to better performance, perhaps because of insufficient practical experience and business context. It is consequently suggested that the SME owners and managers need to invest in effective inventory control systems, training of employees, and adopting modern inventory technologies to reduce costs, improve operational efficiency, and profitability. Additionally, in order to enhance the competitiveness and sustainability of the SMEs in Nigeria, the government and other support agencies ought to offer policy and financial assistance in encouraging the good inventory management practices.

This study examines the essence of effective inventories control and management to manufacturing companies with particular emphasis on Ama Greenfield Breweries plc. The aim of this study is to investigate and ascertain areas of lapses by the company and offer effective ways and solutions in which the manufacturing company can explore the services of inventory management to affect its objectives. In carrying out this study, various research instruments such as questionnaires and oral interview were used to collect data from respondents and a research design was adopted with a sample size of 52. The statistical tool used for this work is Chi square. Based on the analysis, it was discovered that inventory management plays a vital role in the manufacturing company. A well functional inventory management following the recommendations can bring about proper management thereby enhancing proper and effective production and it will equally ensure the effective, efficient and adequate use of materials and resources in the manufacturing company.

This study examines the inventory management and the performance of manufacturing firms in Nigeria