CASE STUDY

AKBAR MOTORS (A)

SUMMARY: WHO: Akbar Motors WHERE: Lahore, PAKISTAN WHEN: Mid-August 1986 WHAT: Computerization of the Inventory system
This company was a small family owned auto and spare parts retail business that employed less than one dozen people. It had two locations in the same city which were managed by the two sons of the owner and there were plans to open additional shops. The young son of the owner, who had taken an introductory course on computer programming, thought that with the help of computer based control systems the business growth could be easily managed. The existing manual systems were not being properly enforced. The company had frequent stock-outs of items even with a large total inventory (inventory turnover was less than 3 times).

Identification of a Problem:
In this case study the information about the computerization of inventory system of a family owned business of automobiles spare parts is discussed. After reading it we found that the real problem is the development of perfect inventory system software.

Analysis of a Problem:
The computerization efforts of the company were initiated by the owner's son's decision to lease an accounting firm's software. After nearly six months of efforts to implement the software it was realized that the software was not suitable for the company. A new two-person new software company was chartered to develop the software for the company. The software was developed without any specific agreement on the specifications or capability requirements. When the inventory data was entered in the developed system 9 it was discovered that it could not handle the volume and scope of the operations involved in maintaining a 10,000 item inventory system. In dismay the computerization efforts were stopped as the father refused to provide any more support for computerization.

Recommendations and Suggestions:

 Software should be developed according to specifications or capability requirements.  The offer of A Chartered firm (Camel Associates) for providing their hardware facilities on monthly rent, along with the inventory and accounting package should be accepted before purchasing any inventory system. If it fulfills the requirements then he may purchase it after six months at nominal price.  Ayaz should get a proper training for operating the software of inventory system.

 Convincing the father on monthly rental system might be easy because it would cost less and if it would not work properly then less amount would be lost.  Before implementing any computerized inventory system. It should be properly checked that it is suitable or not.  Before developing any inventory system software the quantity of maximum inventory should be considered in order to avoid future discrepancies.

Conclusion:
Concluding the above discussed case study we can concisely say that it belongs to an intervention of a hand controlled inventory system into new technique of computerization, to enhance the easy and organized system of inventory. The young Ayaz was in an urge to bring the latest technological innovations to the Family owned business to compete more efficiently in the market. But it was a difficult task to for the owner to choose a perfect inventory system which should be able to record the proper in & out of the inventory at the same time on a large scale. The inventory system chosen was proved inefficient for the business as it was not in accordance with the requirements.