MATERIAL MANAGEMENT

  MATERIAL MANAGEMENT

Material management can be defined as a process that coordinates planning, assessing the requirement, sourcing, purchasing, transporting, storing and controlling of materials, minimizing the wastage and optimizing the profitability by reducing cost of material. Building materials account for 60 to 70 percent of direct cost of a project or a facility, the remaining 30 to 40 percent being the labour cost.

 

Materials management is a process for planning, executing and controlling field and office activities in construction. The goal of materials management is to insure that construction materials are available at their point of use when needed. The materials management system attempts to insure that the right quality and quantity of materials are appropriately selected, purchased, delivered and handled on site in a timely manner and at a reasonable cost.

 

Materials management is the system for planning and controlling all of the efforts necessary to ensure that the correct quality and quantity of materials are properly specified in a timely manner, are obtained at a reasonable cost and most importantly are available at the point of use when required.

 

Thus Materials management is an important element in project management. Materials represent a major expense in construction, so minimizing procurement costs improves opportunities for reducing the overall project costs. Poor materials management can result in increased costs during construction. Efficient management of materials can result in substantial savings in project costs. If materials are purchased too early, capital may be held up and interest charges incurred on the excess inventory of materials.

 

Materials may deteriorate during storage or get stolen unless special care is taken. Delays and extras expenses may be incurred if materials required for particular activities are unavailable. Ensuring a timely flow of materials is an important concern of material management.

For effectively managing and controlling materials, the performance of materials management should be measured. A performance measure calculates the effective working of a function. These performance measures may differ from system to system. The measures divide the materials management system in parts and make the working of the system more efficient. When joined, the measures make the complete materials management system.

Components of Material Management

Components of material management are:

ü  Material estimation, budgeting, planning and programming.

ü  Scheduling , purchasing and procurement

ü  Receiving and inspection.

ü  Inventory control, storage and warehousing

ü  Material handling and transport

ü  Waste management

 

OBJECTIVES OF MATERIALS MANAGEMENT

·        Efficient materials planning

·        Buying or Purchasing

·        Procuring and receiving

·        Storing and inventory control

·        Supply and distribution of materials

·        Quality assurance

·        Good supplier and customer relationship

·        Improved departmental efficiency

To fulfill all these objectives, it is necessary to establish harmony and good co-ordination between all the employees of material management department and this department should have good co-ordination with the other departments of the organization to serve all production centers.

 

FUNCTIONS OF MATERIALS MANAGEMENT

The functions of materials management are discussed below:

In order to fulfill the objectives of materials management as stated above to meet the basic objectives and goals, the functions of the materials management are also categorized as primary and secondary functions.

(I) Primary Functions

To meet the primary objectives, the primary functions of the materials management are given as follows:

·        Materials Requirements Planning (MRP)

·        Purchasing

·        Inventory Planning and Control

·        Ascertaining and Maintaining the Flow and Supply of Materials

·        Quality Control of Materials

·        Departmental Efficiency

(II) Secondary Functions

·        Standardization and Simplification

·        Make and Buy Decisions

·        Coding and Classification of Materials

·        Forecasting and Planning

Reference

Khyomesh  and Chetna ( 2011). Construction materials management on project sites. National Conference on Recent Trends in Engineering & Technology B.V.M. Engineering College, V.V.Nagar,Gujarat, India.