INVENTORY TREND ANALYSIS AND STOCK UTILIZATION IN THE READY-MIX CONCRETE INDUSTRY: A DATA-DRIVEN CASE STUDY OF RUBY READY MIX CONCRETE, CHENNAI

Good management of inventory is essential to achieving efficiency of operations in the Ready-Mixed Concrete (RMC) sector, specifically at Ruby Ready Mix Concrete – a medium sized (in terms of production output) RMC manufacturer located in Chennai and conducting business for the year ending 2025-26. Data collection involved use of monthly/annual godown summary reports, from which to produce a monthly trend visualisation based on primary data (as noted directly above) as well as performing descriptive/inferential analysis using IBM SPSS Statistics. Substantial closing stock accumulation over 12 months occurred progressively from INR 27.23 lac to INR 530.99 lac, or an increase of 1443%; the reason for this significant growth was because of an anticipatory procurement strategy, in which inward receipts generally outpaced outward dispatches. The study identified three distinct phases of inventory accumulation, namely: High Accumulation (April – September), Moderate Accumulation (October –November), and Equilibrium/Drawdown (December-March). The average Coefficient of Variation (CV) for the closing stock (46.8%) indicates high variability; by contrast, there was low variability (i.e. CV of 18.9%) associated with the outward dispatches, indicating stable throughput from production. The weak correlation between closing stock and consumption indicates consumptive patterns are less influential than procuring patterns on determining inventory levels. A breakdown of material-wise consumption rates indicates total material consumption ranged from 89.2% (i.e., flyash) to 101.3% (from admixture); blue metal + aggregates = 36.9% of total inward dollar value was the largest category of materials by inventory held. The research team concluded that while Ruby Ready Mixed has consistently followed its predetermined method of operation, this method relies heavily on using inventories that have experienced very little change in disposition.