Abstract

Many  manufacturing  firms  are  still  using  manual-tracking  systems  to
manage  their  inventories,  which  is  very  time-consuming. The  automated
inventory system usage has had little application in many manufacturing
firms in Nigeria which often leads to the problems of stock–out and low
productivity. The study sought to ascertain the extent at which automated
inventory system affect the productivity of selected Flour mill manufacturing
companies in Nigeria. The study had a population size of 2, 237, out of which
a sample size of 776 was realized using Krejcie & Morgan formula at 5%
error tolerance and 95% level of confidence. The instrument used for data
collection  was  primarily  questionnaire.  Out  of  776  copies  of  the
questionnaire that were distributed, 641 copies were returned while 135
were not returned. The survey research design was adopted for the study. The
hypothesis was tested using simple linear regression statistical tool.   The
finding indicates that selected Flour mill companies automate their inventory
system to a moderate extent. The Enterprise Resource Planning (Mean =
4.72, Std. Dev. = 1.207) and Materials Requirement Planning System (Mean
=  4.10,  Std.  Dev.  =  1.547)  were  prominent  automated  inventory
management tools used by selected Flour mill manufacturing companies.
The  finding  revealed  that  automated  inventory  system  significantly
influenced the productivity of the Flour mills companies (? = 0.614; t =
2.547; F= 62.805; p< 0> system  affects  the  productivity  of  selected  Flour  mills  manufacturing
companies in Nigeria. The study also concluded that selected Flour mills
manufacturing companies use Enterprise Resource Planning and Materials
Requirement  Planning  to  increase  productivity  and  reduce  the
manufacturing  lead-times.  The  study  recommended  that  Flour  mills
manufacturing companies should fully adopt automated inventory systems
in inventory management as this will greatly improve the performance of the
procurement  function.  Enterprise  resource  planning  and  materials
requirement planning system should also be integrated by the companies.