Purchasing and Inventory Management

Purchasing and Inventory Management have undergone tremendous changes in last few years. New Technologies, new tools, new philosophy and new thinking, Purchasing and Inventory Management has undergone a complete transformation. Though these activities are now viewed as part of the all encompassing Supply Chain Management, Purchasing and Inventory Management are very important and have an independent identity. This book brings out the nuances involved in Purchasing and Inventory Management illustrated with real life examples and cases from Indian companies. The first part of the book deals with Purchasing Management while the second part is on Inventory Management. The two portions are mutually exclusive and can be read together or separately as the reader desires. The book should be useful to practicing professionals, students as well as to information seekers. The book is unique because it covers Purchasing and Inventory Management completely and exhaustively. Whatever there is to these two activities has been exhaustively covered in the book. From basic process involved in Purchasing and Inventory Management to Hedging and Forwarding, from Negotiation skills to Legal aspects, from spares parts management to selective inventory control, the book addresses all these topics and more. Written lucidly in simple language, the book should be the one stop resource for everybody even remotely connected with this field.

Shri K. S. Menon, a graduate from the Madras University, had an illustrious career in the Indian Oil Corporation Ltd. He was the Chief Materials Manager of Indianoil in Mumbai when he retired in 1985. He had been associated with the Indian Institute of Materials Management for a long time, serving as its Director of Education, Consultancy and Research and was responsible for the development of the Diploma courses, the texts and the curricula. He was awarded the National Award of the IIMM for his outstanding contribution to Materials Management. He is a Fellow of the IIMM. Before shifting to Thiruvananthapuram in 1996, he was a management consultant in Mumbai. He was in great demand as faculty in Mumbai and elsewhere, in management institutes and for corporate training programmes in the management of stores, inventory, purchasing, work study, productivity, creativity, etc. He has two other books to his credit on subjects related to materials management. His book on Stores Management has run into several editions, and remained the preferred text in that subject, for more than 30 years.

Sarika Kulkarni has a doctorate in Materials Management. She is Director of Institute of Management of the prestigious Parle Tilak Vidyalaya Association in Mumbai. She was associated with the Jamanalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies, Mumbai as a faculty and researcher until 2001. She has been an entrepreneur, is a prolific writer and a speaker. This is her third book, the first book was on Supply Chain Management while the second on Business Process Outsourcing.