INTRODUCTION:

Materials are essential for living and leading a life. Management of necessary materials without wasting money, time and effort play vital importance in the society, as we face a shortage of resources today. While considering the needs and safety of the future generation, it is very essential to manage daily needed materials to range from drawing pins to machines. An efficient material management system accounts for the profit and loss of the institutions. No one can work without these and it must be made available to all employees at the right time and right quantity to work efficiently. Before that, the management must collect the materials at the right price and right quality, and deliver to the right place.

After delivery, they have to monitor and control the material flow including disposal of the waste products. It is a chain of task where a lot of human effort and money invested in an institution. An institution will be shattered if the materials are understocked, overstocked or poorly handled¹.

The department of nursing in an institution covers more than half of the total workforce. Here, the learning of material management by the nurses helps to control the cost and loss of the products and economies the interventions of the institution. So, the nurses have to learn the principles of material management to ease their work and produce quality output with a limited quantity of materials. The current paper deals with the meaning, concept, principles, process, procedure, and care of equipment in material management.

Figure 1 Concept of material management

Definition:

Material management is defined as a set of predetermined activities of an institution, consists of planning, sourcing, purchasing, transporting, storing, utilizing, controlling and disposal or recycling of materials in an optimum manner, aim to provide quality care within the affordable cost to the customers without any interruption of service.

Concept:

The word concept means an idea which tells the nature of a subject. In the section, the author explains the concept of material management has five levels: Supplier, Manufacturer, Distribution system, Host and Guest customer service.

The manufacturing company has to collect the raw materials from the suppliers and produce the products. The host customer (institution) purchases the products through the distribution system. After storing the purchased products, the host customer distributes it to the various departments and utilizes for the service of the guest customers. For example (Figure 1), the manufacturing company buys woods from suppliers and manufactures tables and chairs. The host customer like hospitals buy the tables and chairs and distribute to the various departments based on their needs. These materials are using for patient care service. Being a health professional, it is not necessary to learn the concepts of material management at the supplier and manufacturing level. However, it is important to know the basic concepts of material management in the distribution system, host and guest customers service side to avoid the overstock or understock of materials, to provide continuous and quality patient care at an affordable cost.

Scope of Material Management:

The term scope means the extent of the area that something relevantly deals with. Here, the scope of material management extends to three levels; planning, purchasing, supplying and utilization of materials.

Planning:

The two sub-levels are material planning and sourcing.

Material Planning:

It involves the estimation of materials needed in different departments and budget calculation for ordering the right type and quality materials in minimum quantity.

Sourcing:

It is the procedure of selecting the right source of material supply after evaluating their performance concerning production and sales and negotiating the prices and taking the decision on the selection of goods and services. This is also called a procurement process.

Purchasing:

It involves the finalization of the orders for purchasing, placement of the orders and payment of the orders at the right time. The material manager has to schedule the delivery lead time with the suppliers and follow up of actual deliveries from the manufacturing site to the customer site. Also, remember to take action if they fail to deliver the products on time.

Storing of Materials:

Involves the transfer of materials to a store after inventory checking for the shortage of ordered materials. The material manager has to return the excess or defective products after inventory checking.

Supplying:

Involves the supply of materials to the various departments based on their needs. The material manager has to evaluate the overstock of unused materials in the departments frequently.

Utilization of Materials:

It involves the utilization of materials to deliver the customer service without any interruption and enhances the employees’ satisfaction towards the work environment.

Disposal/Recycle of Materials:

The material manager has to arrange the companies where they recycle or dispose of defective/ utilized products.

Significance of Material Management:

Material management is directly associated with the operational efficiency of an institution in delivering customer service. Good material management ensures the smooth functioning of the institution by ensuring the availability of the right materials in the right time to the employees. Thus, it saves the overall time, money, productivity by maintaining the quality of care with minimizing the wastage of materials².

Time:

The proper material management prevents the wastage of time. It has to ensure the continuous supply of materials to the various departments by maintaining enough stock in the store. Or else, the shortage of materials lead to waiting/idle time of employees till the next delivery of products. Hence, the lack of availability of materials affects the patient care service at the right time.

Cost:

The institution has to invest a major portion of the cost of purchasing, maintaining, and disposal of materials. The right time of ordering the products after negotiation, storing of material without damage and proper disposal or recycling of used material save a lot of cost to the institution. Therefore, the proper management of materials plays a vital role in increasing the profit of the organization.

Quality:

The term quality means to keep the degree of excellence of performance of the materials in regards to usage and shelf life (It is the length of time that a material can be used without becoming unfit). The purchased materials need to be in working condition in expected shelf life. The patient care service will be threatened with poor quality performance of the materials. The material management system of the institution ensures the quality of the materials while purchasing and delivers it to the right place at the right time.

Productivity:

The term productivity means the quality of being productive for more than an expected period. Rather than the quality of materials, the shortage of materials in the workplace has a strong impact on productivity. The workers have to wait for retrieving the materials and they might be physically fatigued. So, with the appropriate storage of materials, the workers can work without any interruption in performing the assigned tasks. The material management helps to monitor the flow of items and stocking the materials in advance to increase the productivity of the employees.

Waste:

It refers to the material that is unfit for use due to damage or cannot be used due to noncompliance with the specification of the manufacturing company. The waste products need to move out for disposal or recycle of the same. Inappropriate management of the wastes results in accumulation, thus it creates a menace for the working environment.

Strategies to minimize waste are:

· Optimum stock control of materials

· Proper handling of materials

· Systematic inventory process

· Proper material storage

· Replacing the unused with used materials

· Moving the unused materials for disposal or recycle

Efficient material management practices help to minimize the waste generation in the institution.

Aims of Material Management:

The main aims are to get³;

· The right quality products

· The right quantity of materials

· At the right time

· At the right place

· For the right cost

Purposes of Material Management:

· To gain an economy in purchasing

· To satisfy the demand during the period of replenishment

· To maintain the reserve stock to avoid stock out

· To stabilize fluctuations in consumption

· To provide a reasonable level of client services

· To increase the efficiency of health care systems

· To develop knowledge and skills of health care

· To provide materials in required quantity and quality as when required

Objectives of Material Management:

The objectives of the material management can be classified into two categories; primary and secondary objectives⁴.

Primary Objectives:

The following are;

Low Prices:

The main objective of the material management to procure the materials at low cost to reduce the operating cost and increasing the profit of the institution.

Lower Inventories:

It is very essential to reduce the transportation cost, carrying cost and storage cost to increase the return on investment.

Reduction in Real Cost:

Proper handling materials and storage lowers the overall cost of the institution.

Regular Supply:

To avoid the interruption of the customer service, the regular supply of materials is essential.

Procurement of Quality Materials:

The material management department is responsible for ensuring quality materials during purchase to ensure patient safety.

Efficient handling of materials:

The effective handling of materials will help to reduce the production cost.

Secondary objectives⁵:

The following are the important secondary objectives of material management.

Reciprocity:

It means the purchase of raw materials from an organization's by the concern and in turn, the sale of finished products to the above customers, which helps to balance purchase and sales of materials.

New developments:

The department of material management can implement new developments in handling to save material cost and reduce the wastage.

Standardization:

This concept helps to bring standard components into product designs to reduce the cost of production.

The conception of the future outlook:

The material managers must foresee the changing trends in the prices and cost-effectiveness, to strive for a reduction in the cost of production and distribution and to help the organization to achieve the objectives.

Principles of material management:

· All activities should be planned.

· It should be based on sound purchasing methods by the material manager.

· Plan an operation sequence and equipment arrangement to optimize material flow.

· Reduce unnecessary movement of equipment.

· Plan a scheduled repair of all handling equipment.

The procedure of material management system⁶:

The following procedural steps are being taken in material management such as

Demand estimation:

The material manager should estimate the quantity of the materials needed to run the organization.

Place an order:

· After estimating the demand, the manager should order the materials at the minimum quantity.

· Purchase of the ordered items

· Receipt and inspection of materials

· Storage and distribution of materials

· Maintenance and repair of the materials

· Proper disposal of items

Advantages of material specification⁷:

Classification of the materials- It explains about the nature, size, type, and quantity of the materials needed for the organization.

Facilitation of the work:

The good quality materials are essential for the facilitation of the work.

Lessen the purchase procedure:

It lessens the work involved in the purchase and also makes it possible accurately to check delivery of the materials.

CONCLUSION:

Material management is a scientific technique concerned with planning, organizing and controlling the flow of materials from their initial purchase through internal operations to the service point through distribution. Nurses play a vital role in the evaluation of patient care products and they can take the lead in conducting product reviews to enhance the efficiency of material management.

REFERENCES:

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Received on 19.09.2019 Modified on 30.09.2019

Int. J. of Advances in Nur. Management. 2019; 7(4): 383-386.

DOI: 10.5958/2454-2652.2019.00090.8