Exploring South African automotive sector inventory management practices and systems knowledge

The study explores the application of inventory management practices and systems in the South African automotive sector. The study used a qualitative approach in which focus groups and semi-structured interviews were conducted on 18 supply chain professionals drawn from the automotive industry in four provinces in South Africa. ATLAS.ti software was used to analyse data. The study generated two themes of South African automotive industry stock management practices and system knowledge. These themes were labelled as inventory management practices and systems knowledge. The results revealed that South African stock management practices and systems included Always Better Control (ABC) analysis, Economic Order Quantity (EOQ) model, Just in Time (JIT) technique, Material Requirements Planning (MRP) system, and System Analysis Program Development (SAP), amongst others. The study indicated that automotive practitioners should pay attention to stock management and practices, and future studies should focus on lasting solutions identified in this study.