The Effects of Inventory Management Practices on Educational Service Delivery: A Case Study of Sunyani Technical University, Ghana

The study sought to assess the effect of inventory management practices on educational service delivery at Sunyani Technical University (STU). The study was guided by three specific objectives; inventory management practices in Sunyani Technical University, the relationship between inventory management practices and service delivery and the challenges in practicing inventory management at Sunyani Technical University (STU). The study adopted convenient sampling technique to sample 230 respondents. The study revealed that cycle stock (74.8%), in-transit inventories (51.3%), inventory planning and scheduling (78.3%), inventory recording (56.5%) inventory control (72.6%), material requirement planning (MRPI) (78.7%) and safety or buffer stock (57.0%) respectively are the inventory management practices used within the institution. Also the Chi-Square (χ2) analysis on the impact of inventory management practices on service delivery revealed that inventory plays an essential role within the survival of the institution and are consequently held to make sure goods are always available. The study recommends that staff on recruitment and during induction should be trained on how to handle inventory items so that the process of educational service delivery is not affected. This is because most of the teaching staff feel and think that management of inventory is not their responsibility when actually it is the inventory that facilitates their process of delivering the services expected of them.