Improving efficiency in inventory management of the procurement agencies of Bhutan

บทคัดย่อ

Nowadays, technology plays an increasingly vital role in solving problems in industry. Emerging technology improves a company’s performance, thereby increasing the competitiveness of the organization. Bhutan is one of the developing countries that intends to apply technology in many sectors.  A procuring agency in Bhutan is a primary sector responsible for the procurement of goods and services for the entire nation. Not only procurement but also inventory management is handled centrally by the agency. All inventory processes are manual operations, leading to time-consuming tasks and data errors in inventory management. This study aims to improve the efficiency of the procuring agency in Bhutan in terms of inventory management by implementing warehouse handling equipment such as a span track and an electric hand pallet jack, as well as technology devices such as radio frequency identification. To illustrate the flow of processes and compare the current processes with the proposed processes, a value stream mapping tool is employed. The inventory processes are identified as value-added activity (VA), non-value-added activity (NVA), and necessary non-value-added activity (NNVA). Using this tool, waste in the value stream can be determined, and new processes can be proposed to reduce waste. As a result, total working time is reduced by 27 %, and the VA percentage is increased by 8.36 %. Utilizing technology in the procuring agency helps in accuracy and efficiency in the field.