Factors Influencing the Level of Stock Held at Kenya Cooperative Creameries, Nairobi Branch

The stock level is the amount of stock held per time in a firm. Thus, this study sought to determine the factors that affect the level of stock held in New Kenya Cooperative Creameries ltd., Nairobi branch. The study was guided by four objectives: to investigate effect of availability of storage space on the level of stock held, Nairobi branch, to assess the effect of need for cost reduction on the level of stock held in at New Kenya Cooperative Creameries ltd, Nairobi branch, to find out the effect of method of stock control used on stock levels at New Kenya Cooperative Creameries ltd., and to asses if Information Technology is a factor affecting the levels of stock held at New Kenya Cooperative Creameries ltd, Nairobi branch. The methodology adopted was a case study method where the researcher only focused on New Kenya Cooperative Creameries ltd, Nairobi branch. The target population for the study constituted the staff and senior procurement officers of this firm. Stratified random technique was applied so as to obtain a representative sample of the aforementioned groups. The grouping was based on two departments; the Finance and the Procurement departments. 65 employees were given questionnaires in this order; 35 respondents from the procurement department and 30 from the finance department. Statistical Package for Social Sciences and excel were used for analyzing data. This was because they are very accurate and fast in the analysis of data. The results were presented in tables and bar graphs pie charts. The researcher then came up with findings, conclusions and recommendations on how to ensure that the factors affecting the level of stock held at New Kenya Cooperative Creameries ltd, Nairobi branch are well monitored. The study concluded that the space for maintaining enough stock was inadequate and the condition of the equipment was generally below average. New Kenya Cooperative Creameries ltd, Nairobi branch therefore faced numerous problems related to stock levels such as increased maintenance costs and frequent breakdown of the obsolete equipment. The researcher concluded that the company majors on reduction of its costs to optimize its returns by holding low levels of stock. New Kenya Cooperative Creameries ltd, Nairobi branch had put in place inventory management tools, a good example being SAP ECC6. On the basis of IT adoption in stock level optimization, the study concluded that use of transactional software had significantly led to improvement of management of stock levels.