Leadership and Inventory Management: Cost Mart Warehouse Case Study

This paper analyzes the Cost Mart Warehouse case study, focusing on the challenges faced by Amy Gordon, the new supervisor. The case highlights issues with inventory management, inaccurate records, seasonal items, late deliveries, and poor communication. The analysis addresses the problems, symptoms, and potential solutions, emphasizing the need for staff training, proper labeling, customer satisfaction, database maintenance, and efficient warehouse management. A time-phased plan is proposed to optimize inventory requirements, track order processes, and ensure customer needs are met, with a focus on accurate database maintenance for effective inventory control. The paper concludes with references to relevant materials management texts.

Running Head: COST MART WAREHOUSE
cost mart warehouse

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Answers To Questions Related to Case Study................................................................................2
References........................................................................................................................................5

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Introduction
In this paper, we have to analyze the case study of a cost Mart warehouse (Clive, 2012) and by
the study, we have to answer the questions which have been asked. Let us know in brief who this
case study is all about. This case is about a person named Amy Gordon who has been appointed
as the new supervisor of this cost Mart warehouse. But very soon she released how tedious this
task was as nothing was going right till he took over the responsibility of handling of inventory
management in his hand. We will discuss it while answering the questions related to cases.
Answers to Questions Related to Case Study
1) The problems faced by Amy in connection to Cost Mart warehouse was that she was finding
difficulties in filling up of storage materials. She realized that store made use of sale
terminals which could be the problem of inaccurate inventory records. She also realized that
some items were seasonal in nature and no adequate steps were given how to manage such
lists. She found that some items were delivered late which span up to six weeks. She
discovered that there was no proper system in place as such to manage inventories and this is
basically because there was no good communication between all levels in a department.
Customer service was not taken seriously as staff themselves were not properly trained.
Hence profits were getting minimized due to poor maintenance of records and their brand
image was getting affected, and customers were even posting about them online that this
company practice false advertising and hence the company was going through a bad patch.

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The symptoms faced by the Cost Mart Warehouse were staff were not serious towards their
work may be because they were not adequately trained seriously about the effectiveness of
managing inventory and hence needed to be trained properly. Also, there were not any
periodic count of how many lists are required to meet the demand process. Some inventories
were even without the label because of which it is hard to identify for whom that specific
order was, and the database was also not updated from a time to time basis.
2) Amy should, first of all, gather facts related to the accuracy of inventory records which
would help hank his boss know why their company is going to such problem. Also, she
needs to take into account the differences which happens when we count the inventory
physically and what is given in the records which was going on as Hank did not lay much
attention to it.
3) To develop an efficient model of Cost Mart warehouse Amy now being the in charge she
should make sure all the staff should be properly trained, and every personnel needs to be
assigned different work according to their expertise. All the items should be properly labeled
for easy identification, and customer satisfaction should be of prime importance for the
company. Also, all the records should be gathered, and a database should be maintained
which will help in know what stock we require or to whom to send items beforehand. The
problem of surplus supply of inventories should be stopped and taken care of immediately.
Also, she needs to make sure that all staff knows their role well before hand and hence there
should not be any gap in the communication process.

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4) Warehouse management is concerned with the adequate maintenance of the database to
know how much stock is there, what stock is required, what orders need to be shipped etc.
To meet the demand and supply situation.
The time phase plan is as follows:
 To prepare the requirements of inventories from time to time taking into account
purchase process, cycle and delivery period, accurately maintain the database to
know how much material or items requirement is there for each department
beforehand.
 Calculating the time in which order is received, processed, its delivery time, etc. all
should be recorded efficiently to ensure management of inventory is going according
to the planned levels.
 It must be ensured that all the necessary things which the customer have asked for are
adequately met.
 Planning in advance will result in proper functioning and accurately maintain the
database which will help in managing inventory in the best possible manner.

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References
Clive, L. M. (2012). Introduction to Materials Management.
Arnold, J. T. (2011). Introduction to materials management. Pearson Education India.