Nâng cao hiệu quả tổ chức xây dựng dự toán hàng tồn kho tại các doanh nghiệp sản xuất Việt Nam trong thời kỳ hội nhập

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE FOR YOUNG RESEARCHERS IN ECONOMICS & BUSINESS 2020
ICYREB 2020

ENHANCING THE EFFICIENCY OF ORGANIZING INVENTORY
BUDGETS FOR THE VIETNAMESE MANUFACTURING
ENTERPRISES IN THE INTEGRATION PERIOD

NÂNG CAO HIỆU QUẢ TỔ CHỨC XÂY DỰNG DỰ TOÁN
HÀNG TỒN KHO TẠI CÁC DOANH NGHIỆP SẢN XUẤT VIỆT NAM
TRONG THỜI KỲ HỘI NHẬP

PhD, Huong Thao Phan - Thuongmai University


Abstract

The research has truly reflected the actual implementation of organizing inventory budget

which is used as a basis to provide a system of solutions associated with the needs of management.

These include building assessment systems, estimating inventory, organizing information and
controlling activities of management accounting for inventory, and especially optimizing infor-

mation to help managements in the decision-making process. On the other hand, a manufacturer

size with suitable inventory plans, information needs for different levels of management, and

qualifications of accountants in the Vietnamese manufacturing enterprises are determined by ap-

plying qualitative, quantiative methods and analyzing relevant data and level of influence on the

implementation of organizing inventory budgets. The findings of the study revealed that employees

lack proper training and education and that there is poor inventory control planning, lack of staff

communication. Respondents also indicated that there are no common strategies in place to con-

trol inventories.

Keywords: budget, manufacturing enterprise, inventory, management accounting,

organize.

Tóm tắt

Tổ chức xây dựng dự tốn hàng tồn kho là một cơng cụ quan trọng của nhà quản trị trong

thực hiện chức năng hoạch định và kiểm soát hoạt động của doanh nghiệp. Lập dự toán hàng

tồn kho là hoạt động cần thiết và quan trọng nhằm phác thảo tương lai, giúp doanh nghiệp phát
triển đúng hướng và đưa ra kế hoạch thực hiện phù hợp để đạt được mục tiêu chiến lược. Bài

viết tập trung làm rõ vai trò của tổ chức xây dựng dự toán hàng tồn kho trong các doanh nghiệp

sản xuất, thực trạng xây dựng dự toán hàng tồn kho trong các doanh nghiệp sản xuất ở Việt Nam
hiện nay. Trên cơ sở đó, tác giả đưa ra một số đề xuất hồn thiện tổ chức xây dựng dự tốn hàng

tồn kho nhằm nâng cao hiệu quả quản lý hàng tồn kho của nhà quản trị trong doanh nghiệp.
Từ khóa: dự toán, doanh nghiệp sản xuất, hàng tồn kho, kế toán quản trị, tổ chức.

1074

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE FOR YOUNG RESEARCHERS IN ECONOMICS & BUSINESS 2020
ICYREB 2020

1. The role of organizing inventory budget in manufacturing enterprises

Inventories can account for 40% -50% of a business’s total capital; up to 33% of company
assets and 90% of working capital (N.T.P.Dung, 2013). Inventory helps businesses achieve economic efficiency of large output; balance supply and demand; support production specialization;
cope with fluctuations of demand, order cycle and above all, they act as a “stepping stone” between stages in the supply chain... Therefore, good control of inventory is always a very important
and an essential issue in enterprises. To achieve the above goal, it is necessary to have an effective
combination between functional departments in the enterprise, in which accounting is an indispensable important management tool for the administrators (Naidoo et al, 2011). Organizing management accounting for inventory, especially for inventory budget in a scientific and reasonable
way will help enterprises promote the process of rotation inventory; improve the efficiency of
inventory management. The role of organizing inventory budget in manufacturing businesses is
demonstrated in the following aspects:

- Organizing inventory budget provides information to support the control of production
and business activities of enterprises. The arising economic transactions related to the inventory
are recorded in the reports and compared with the budgets of inventory that were made earlier.
The inventory budget information helps administrators of all levels to control and evaluate activities in a diverse, detailed, timely manner and are suitable to the needs of users (Nzuza, 2014).
In addition, the inventory budget system will have to collect and provide information about different situations with different options so that the administrator can consider and make the best
and most effective decision.

- Organizing inventory budget (IB) provides information to support management control.
With the information in the IB, the administrator considers the mobilization and uses of the unit’s
resources effectively to meet the goals of the management of IB. With the information on the report of performance fluctuations, the administrator will recognize the implementation status of
the criteria on the inventory at the management levels; fluctuations in performance compared to
plan goals. On the other hand, proper IB can lead to an increse in competitiveness and market
share of small producers (Akcali, 2008). Well-organized IB are also the foundation for an organization’s success and growth as an organization’s overall profit is tied to the volume of products
produced and consumed (N.T.P.Dung, 2013).

- The efficience of organizing IB can also provide information for strategic planning and
detailed plans for enterprises. Through the system of IBs, the Board of Directors will receive the
expected information on the financial situation, efficient of production and business of each department in the unit. Thereby, senior managers can plan operational strategies for the whole unit.

1075


INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE FOR YOUNG RESEARCHERS IN ECONOMICS & BUSINESS 2020
ICYREB 2020

Source: Ivanov (2010)

Chart 1: Model of synthesis of inventory budget

2. Research methodology

Qualitative research: is conducted through theoretical research and previous studies related
to the construction and organizing inventory budget, at the same time combined with surveys
and consultation of some experts who are managers, accountants in production enterprises in
Hanoi city, Bac Ninh province, Phu Tho province... to identify and determine the contents of organizing inventory budgets in those enterprises. A qualitative research method explores the
attitudes, behaviour and experiences through methods such as open-ended questions, interviews, and focus groups. It attempts to get a broad opinion and comprehensive understanding of the phenomenon from the views of participants. Briefly, Welman et al. (2011: 87)
explain that a qualitative research has its own set of strength and disadvantages. Its strength includes creating a better understanding of the responses whereas its disadvantage is that its time
consuming.

Quantiative method: is conducted through the method of directly distributing questionnaires
combined with sending online surveys (via google.docs). In this article, the author conducted research based on 41 manufacturing enterprises (ME) in the fields of paper, food, confectionery in
VietNam in the period between 2017 and 2019 with the support of SPSS 22.0 software. According
to Welman et al. (2011: 87), a quantitative research method is descriptive in nature and is used
to answer questions about the relationships amongst measured variables. The analysis arrays from

creating simple tables that show the frequency of occurrence through establishing statistical
relationships between measured variables (independent variable and dependent variable) of
the study.
Process of collecting information:

Interviewing some accounting experts at some production enterprises to get preliminary
comments on issues: the process of collecting, processing, synthesizing, providing inventory accounting information to the managers.
1076


INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE FOR YOUNG RESEARCHERS IN ECONOMICS & BUSINESS 2020
ICYREB 2020

With predominantly closed-ended questions and only two open-ended questions, the questionnaire was divided into three sections and consisted of 26 questions, with the levels of measurement consisting of nominal and ordinal types of questions.

Through a forum on the Internet, for a period of 3 months (from October 2019 to December 2019), 295 responses were obtained. The sampling method used is non-random sampling
- convenient sampling for commercial enterprises in the research scope. Through screening and
analysis, the author used 189 results from different types of enterprises

Members responding to the questionnaire are mainly from the accounting department
(73%), in which there are 23 chief accountants (12%), 38 general accountants (20%) and 60 accountants (31.7%).

Regarding the level of knowledge of the respondents to the questionnaire: About 93% of
the respondents said they know about inventory accounting in enterprises, of which 16% are very
knowledgeable. About 7% of respondents to the questionnaire do not know much about it in enterprises, these are people who do not directly work as accountants, nor directly use information
from accounting, so this is also appropriate. physical. All responses missing data were removed
from the results of the analysis.

3. Facts about organizing inventory budget of manufacturing enterprises in VietNam

According to the results of the author’s analysis, 15/41 ME (accounting for 36.76%) are
interested in building IB. In organizing IB, surveyed companies have had certain interest in the
value chain of inventory. Table 1 shows the percentage of enterprises making inventory budgets
Table 1: The percentage of enterprises making inventory budgets

Valid

Yes

Frequency

Percent

43

63.24

No

Total

25
68

36.76
100.0

Valid Percent Cumulative Percent
36.76

36.76

63.24

100

100.0

There are 8/41 businesses focus on 2 issues in the IB process which are: (1) Establishing,
calculating how to ensure timely product delivery to customers and (2) Do not store too much
because it will cause capital stagnation, increase in maintenance costs and lead to low capital efficiency; and vice versa, if the reserve is small, it will affect the consumption of the business.
The proportion of inventory budgets are shown in table 2.
Table 2: The proportion of inventory budgets in enterprises

Valid

Material budget

Production budget
Storage budget

Finished goods budget

36.6

Valid
Percent
36.6

Cumulative

Percent
36.6

36.6

36.6

36.6

Frequency

Percent

25

36.6

25
25
17

1077

24.4

36.6
24.4

36.6
24.4

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE FOR YOUNG RESEARCHERS IN ECONOMICS & BUSINESS 2020
ICYREB 2020

It can be seen that the accounting department along with a number of other departments
in the ME has completed the inventory standards, thereby building the system of IB. The MEs
have set up a relatively appropriate process of planning and estimating inventory. Organizing IB
is an very useful initial foundation for estimating business costs in MEs. In fact, surveyed companies have established standards, but only stop at the standard of quantity not yet price standard.
If any enterprise has set price standard, those standards are not often updated with the volatility
of the market. On the other hand, the adjustment of technical standard is mainly based on practical
experience, lack of science-based analysis, not updating with actual production conditions. The
proportion of inventory standards are illustrated in table 3.
Table 3: The proportion of inventory standards in enterprises

Valid

Material standard
Fuel standard

Spare parts consumption
Minimum inventory

Type of Standard
Raw materials
consumption
Spare parts
consumption
Fuel
consumption

Minimum inventory
of raw materials

Frequency

Percent

Valid
Percent

Cumulative
Percent

20

29.3

29.3

29.3

40
40
17

58.5
58.5
24.4

Contents

Regulates the consumption of main raw
materials, the average consumption of catalysts, water, and electricity per product

58.5
58.5
24.4

58.5
58.5
24.4

Applied ratio
58,5%

Regulates the consumption of spare parts
in maintenance and repair activities

29,3%

Regulates the consumption of gasoline, oil
for the operation and maintenance of vehicles, machinery and equipment

58,5%

Regulates the minimum level of raw materials to be stored in the warehouse to
meet arising cases

24,4%
(Source: Author’s survey)

Currently, there are still many MEs (63.24%) that have not yet made a detailed and
complete IB, very few enterprises convert material and technical standards which are being implemented in their units into standards or anticipated costs.

Besides, the figure of raw material budget is often fixed for a certain level of activity,
enterprises have not made a flexible budget for many different levels of activity. In order to make
a reasonable IB at the end-of-period, businesses often rely on the statistical method of experience,
and at the same time based on on-going projects and contracts. The determination of the number
1078


INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE FOR YOUNG RESEARCHERS IN ECONOMICS & BUSINESS 2020
ICYREB 2020

of goods to be ordered each time, the time of ordering and the safety reservation are mainly based
on the experience of the departments in the business. Therefore, the difference between the implementation and the budget has not met the management’s information needs in the construction
of business plans to promote inventory rotation, improve the efficiency of inventory management
of the business.

Based on the fact about organizing inventory budget of manufacturing enterprises in VietNam, it points out that the accounting department along with a number of other departments in
businesses have completed inventory standards thereby making an inventory budget system.
Enterprises have all set up the process according to the relatively appropriate steps to develop
plans and estimates of cooperative relations. However, the fact also shows that enterprises have
built standards but only stop at the quantity standard but have not built a price standard. If any
enterprise has set price standard, those are often not updated with the volatility of the market.
Currently, there are still many MEs that have not yet conducted detailed and complete inventory
budgets, very few enterprises convert the material and technical standards that are being implemented in their units into cost standard or budget cost. On the other hand, the budget of raw
materials production is often fixed for a certain level of activity, enterprises have not built flexible
budgets for many different level of activities. Therefore, the information about the difference
between the implementation and the budget has not met the information needs of the administrators.

4. Some proposals to complete inventory budgets in the Vietnamese manufacturing enterprises

* Organizing material standards

The organization of building raw materials standard system is an effective tool to manage
the cost of inventory costs on the basis of eliminating the irrationality and inefficiency of production and business activities. The system is designed to reflect future performance levels, not
past performance levels, and serves as the basis for department reports and assessment of the
performance of the responsibility centers. Organizing raw materials standard system should pay
attention to the following 5 issues:

Regarding the basis of standard construction: The standard of raw materials needed to be
used is determined on the basis of the output - input relationship (pure technical relationship between direct raw materials and output products). Specifically: the technical standards of the products provided by the Technical Department, IB from the previous periods provided by the
Accounting Department, through surveying, statistics of the actual situation.

Regarding the standard organizing department: The raw material standards are determined
by the technical design department and the sales department. In order to ensure that the standards
are set accurately and scientifically, enterprises need to select employees with good qualifications
and ability of long experience.
Regarding the time of organizing standard: built for each business period

Regarding the content of raw materials standards: standards are divided into 2 categories:

- Standard of raw material quantity: is the standard reflecting the amount of raw materials
1079


INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE FOR YOUNG RESEARCHERS IN ECONOMICS & BUSINESS 2020
ICYREB 2020

consumed per unit of product and unavoidable losses. The amount of raw materials consumed

for a product is an important data to set raw material costs in the budget period.

- Standard of raw material price: is the standard reflecting the raw material purchase price
including raw material price plus the cost of purchasing and minus the allowable discount. Standard of raw material price is determined by the Purchasing department. The Supply department
needs to choose high quality raw material suppliers with the most reasonable prices. On the basis
of combining information between past analysis and research on future price volatility trends
provided by management accounting, the administrator will choose a reasonable expected price
for the raw materials used by businesses.

Regarding the method of building the standard of raw materials: Enterprises can organize
to build the standards according to one of three methods: experience statistics, technical economics or direct testing. Depending on their specific conditions, enterprises choose to apply the appropriate methods to build the raw material standards in accordance with the reality.

* Organizing inventory budget

The IB is understood as the detailed, meticulous and comprehensive calculations, budget,
and coordination of the inventory, how to mobilize and use the inventory to perform a certain
volume of work in a given period of time which is represented by a system of quantity and value
indicators (Doan Ngoc Que, 2015). Organizing IB will help businesses be proactive in production
and business, anticipate difficulties in implementing their goals, limit the costs of backlog, warehouse costs, and management costs ... IB is one of the production and business budget of a
business and is dominated by the consumption budget to determine the amount of inventory at
the end of the period to serve decisions on production and consumption. At the same time, IB
also dominates and is inversely related to production budget. The MEs can apply the general process for IB in 3 stages in table 4 as follows:
Budget stages

Table 4: General process for making inventory budget
in manufacturing businesses
Processes

Step 1: Determine the target of consupmtion of the whole business
Based on the forecast of domestic and international market demand, the

regulations on import and export that were actually Achieved in the previous period, the potentials and goals of their enterprises in the next period,
the business department will anticipate production by each type that the
Stage 1: Preparing business can achieve in the planning period. On the basis of the target of
inventory budget
the expected consumption and the ability to store a product, management
reviews and approves the target.
Step 2: Prepare personnel for inventory budget
On the basis of the approved production and business goals, the Board of
Directors needs to set up a separate department specializing in making
budget for the enterprise. These staff members are in the Management Accounting Department and are controlled and managed by the Accounting
Department.
1080


INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE FOR YOUNG RESEARCHERS IN ECONOMICS & BUSINESS 2020
ICYREB 2020

Step 3: Prepare the budget
The specialized department, after being assigned the task of drafting the
forms and content necessary for the preparation of IB, reviews and evaluates the preparation work to ensure that it will provide useful budget information.

Step 1: Collecting relevant information
Employees performing IB need to collect information related to the inenStage 2: Organiz- tory from internal and external sources of the enterprise. Other departing
inventory ments in the enterprise need to coordinate to provide information for IB
budget
Step 2: Organizing inventory budget
On the basis of the forms prepared in phase 1, the collected information,
management accounting staff will process, analyze the information, specify the consumption output targets into budget of purchasing materials,
raw material budget, finished products, reservation budget.

Stage 3: Approving After completing, the IBs will be submitted to the board of directors to
and implementing review the appropriateness of the budget with the general goals. The budgbudgets
ets are approved, they will be transferred to the relevant departments in
the enterprise to implement, monitor and control.

Source: Author (2019)

Enterprises can produce and trade many products, using many types of raw materials, so
making a detailed budget for quantity and price for each item and each type of raw material is
complicated and difficult to do. Therefore, it is possible to organize the budget for the main items
or groups of business goods, important raw materials with great demand or make a detailed budget
of both quantity and price for each main inventory item.

Regarding the organization of information bases to make IBs: In order to organize inventory
budget system, enterprises must establish an unified process for receiving input information. Information for budget can be obtained from many different departments, divided into 2 sources:

- Internal information source: is available information reflecting the business activities of
enterprises through business plans, documents and accounting numbers about inventory, information predicting the future provided by related departments such as the planning department,
the sales department, the manufacturing department ...

- External information sources: is unavailable information requiring enterprises to spend
time and money to collect through the processes of investigation, interviews, document research,
including information related to market, suppliers, competitors, the State’s policies ...

Regarding the application of inventory budget model: organizing the budget in the enterprise must base on the organizational structure of management, knowledge of the staff to choose
the appropriate model according to one of the three following models: top-down information models, bottom-up information models, or feedback models.
1081


INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE FOR YOUNG RESEARCHERS IN ECONOMICS & BUSINESS 2020

ICYREB 2020

Regarding the application of techniques into inventory budget: To ensure the scienctific
features and feasibility of the budget, enterprises need to prepare on the basis of the supply chain,
starting from raw materials, ending with finished products and inventoy reserve.

* Budget of purchasing raw materials:

Estimating the purchase of raw materials during the supply process is calculating the quantity and value of each type of raw materials that needs to be purchased in the period to meet the
needs of production and business to help businesses do business effectively. During the production
and business process, there may be times when enterprises encounter the situation of inventories
of materials and finished products, causing stagnant business capital, having a negative impact
on enterprises and sometimes there are no materials and goods for production or consumption.
Therefore, making a budget of purchasing raw materials will help businesses to be more active
in their business.

Budget of purchasing raw materials is only made for key products, it will be difficult to
make a budget for all products. At the beginning of the annual business period, management accounting staff should make a budget of purchase for each type of material that is required for
production and business in the period in terms of both quantity and value, then sum up the value
of purchased goods in the planning period into budget of purchasing raw materials according to
the process in diagram 1.

Source: Author (2019)

Diagram 1: Process of organizing the purchase of raw materials budget

A reliable unit price budget contributes to the foreseen demand for capital, the value of capital in inventory to have a plan on mobilizing and using capital reasonably, to avoid stagnant
capital in inventory. Furthermore, the unit price budget helps to manage the purchase value (production) reasonably, to avoid waste or take advantage of purchasing to make a profit of the pur1082

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE FOR YOUNG RESEARCHERS IN ECONOMICS & BUSINESS 2020
ICYREB 2020

chasing staff. Therefore, unit price budget can also be considered as a measure of the purchasing
activitites in the period.

* Raw materials budget for production

Raw materials budget for production is the determination of the amount of raw materials
needed to serve the production plan. If the finished product is an independent inventory serving
external consumption, raw material is the dependent inventory type used to meet the internal production needs of the enterprise. Therefore, when the consumption and production needs have
been identified, the raw material demand is predicted quite accurately according to a certain standard or a certain ratio compared to the number of products to be produced.
Raw material
value needed for
prooduction

=

Number
of products x
produced

Consumption
of material for x
each product

Estimated
price

* Estimated raw materials at the end of the period: Quantity and value of raw materials

at the end of the period is determined as follows:
Estimated quantity of raw
materials in stock at the =
end of the period

Estimated value of
raw materials at the end of =
the period

Quantity of raw materials
in stock at the end of the x
period
Estimated quantity of raw
materials in stock at the x
end of the period

Estimated
percentage
of inventory

Estimated
unit price

In which: The estimated percentage of inventory is determined similar to that of inventory
at the end of the period and is calculated to give a reasonable ratio on the basis of unifying the
goals of the production, business and accounting department.

* Estimated finished products:

Part of the required finished product is already in stock at the beginning of the budget period, the remainder needs to be produced during the budget period. The number of finished products is determined by the formula: (Doan Ngoc Que, 2015).

Quantity of inventory
Quantity of
Quantity of finished
Quantity of finished
at the beginining
products produced in = products consumed in + inventory at the of the period
end of the period
the period
the period

* Estimated finished products consumed:

Estimated finished products consumed are made to ensure a minimum amount of inventory
at the end of the period, suffcient for the consumption demand of the next period. At the same
time, the determination of a reasonable amount of finished products in stock is also meaningful
to the capital turnover, not causing capital stagnation. The value of finished products in stock at
the end of the period is determined as follows:
1083


INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE FOR YOUNG RESEARCHERS IN ECONOMICS & BUSINESS 2020
ICYREB 2020

Value of finished products
in stock at the end of the =
period

Number of finished
products in stock at the =

end of the period

Product price
per unit

* Determine the safe inventory level

The establishment of a safe inventory level will help ME to avoid unexpected demands
that enterprises did not anticipate. For example, the regulation of 10% of the average inventory
for a kind finished product in the same period last year will help businesses promptly respond to
unusual demands for such products. Regulation of inventory level should be based on the following criteria: physical and chemical characteristics of inventory, demand for materials used in
the previous year, expected analysis report of consumption. The safety inventory level is determined by the following formula:
Safety inventory level

=

Expected demand
for product consumption in the x
next period

Estimated
percentage
of inventory

Organizing inventory budget is a content of management accounting in enterprises in order
to provide information about inventory for each enterprise to perform the function of managing
consumption factors for activities, to help the administrators develop plans, control and evaluate
performance as well as make reasonable decisions. In many MEs in Vietnam, in recent years, although awareness of the importance of IB has been raised, many enterprises still have not really
paid attention to this issue. Therefore, managers in enterprises need to change their perception of
the role of inventory budget in business management soon. Traditional and experienced management thinking should be replaced by modern management accounting methods, thus adding and

updating new knowledge to improve the efficiency of inventory management in enterprises.

REFERENCES

1. Akcali, E. and Bayindir, Z. P. (2008), ‘Analyzing the effects of inventory cost setting
rules in a disassembly and recovery environment’, International journal of production research.

2. Dimitrios P. Koumanakos (2004), ‘The effect of inventory management accounting on
firm performance’, Thesis of doctor, University of Patras, Greece House.

3. Doan Ngoc Que (2015), ‘Management Accounting Text book’, HochiMinh Economic
Publish

4. Ivanov (2010), ‘An adaptive framework for aligning (re)planning decisions on supply
chain strategy, design, tactics, and operations’, International journal of production research,
48(13): 4010.

5. Jonsson, P. and Mattsson, S.A.(2008), ‘Inventory management practices and their
implications on perceived planning performance’, International journal of production
research, 46(7): 1788-1789.

1084


INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE FOR YOUNG RESEARCHERS IN ECONOMICS & BUSINESS 2020
ICYREB 2020

6. Konstantopoulos, Nikolaos, Bekiaris, Michail G, Zounta, Stella (2007), ‘A Dynamic
Simulation Model of the Inventories Management Accounting Information Systems (MAIS)’,
AIP Conference Proceedings, Vol. 963 Issue 2.

7. Mayanja MK và Vander Poll HM (2011), ‘Management accounting: An instrument for
implementing effective corporate governance’, African Journal of Business Management Vol.
5(30)

8. Merchant (2017), ‘Management Control Systems: Performance Measurement, Evaluation and Incentives’, Pitman Publishing

9. Mohammaditabar, D., Hassan, G. S. and O’Brien, C. (2012), ‘Inventory control system
design by integrating inventory classification and policy selection’, International journal of production economics, 140(2): 655.
10. Naidoo, V. & Wu, T. (2011), ‘Marketing strategy implementation in higher education:
A mixed approach for model development and testing’, Journal of marketing management.

11. Nguyen Thi Phuong Dung (2013), ‘The evaluation of Management accounting practices
in VietNam: empirical evidience from VietNamese food and beverage enterprises’, Thesis of doctor, Tohoku University.

12. Nzuza (2013), ‘Factors affecting the success of inventory control in the Stores Division
of the eThekwini Municipality, Durban: a case study’, Thesis of doctor, Durban University of
Technology Durban, South Africa.

13. Welman, C, Kruger, F. and Mitchell, B. (2011), ‘Research methodology’, 3rd ed. Cape
Town: Oxford University Press South Africa.

1085