A Maturity Model to Improve Inventory Management Systems in SMEs

Iqbal, Ayzah Shaheen (2025) A Maturity Model to Improve Inventory Management Systems in SMEs. Doctoral thesis, Birmingham City University.

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Abstract

Accurate inventory data is critical for effective inventory management to meet customer demands. Although inventory management systems (IMS) integrate processes, inaccurate inventory data remains a significant problem in small to medium enterprises (SMEs).

Existing research to improve inventory data accuracy focuses on discrete solutions implemented in isolation, such as automated inventory tracking and inventory storage policies, with limited success. Recent research highlights that challenges of inventory data inaccuracy still exist and are not one-directional but are interrelated, identifying the need for a holistic socio-technical systems approach to address inventory data challenges collectively to improve inventory management systems. The thesis addresses this gap by proposing a maturity model and a supporting practical application framework to enable SMEs to adopt a socio-technical systems approach to assess and address the causes of inaccurate inventory data, thus improving the operation of inventory management systems.

A thematic literature review adopted a socio-technical systems lens in identifying inventory data quality measures and categorising inventory management systems challenges and critical success factors into four areas: Organisational, People, Process, and Technology (OPPT). The literature findings were validated through primary data collection with inventory managers of 5 e-commerce retail SMEs in West Midlands, UK. Rich pictures were developed to analyse the interview data and the application of soft systems methodology was used to identify improvements to inventory management systems in SMEs. This led to the development of a practical application framework consisting of 3 stages: (i) Context capture to identify the nature of inventory management systems in an SME (IMCCT), (ii) Inventory Management System Maturity Model (IMSMM) to assess the current state of inventory management in an SME and (iii) Recommended actions to improve inventory management systems. The maturity model adopts a socio-technical approach by assessing maturity across all four socio-technical areas (OPPT) and identifying improvements to be implemented jointly across these areas. The maturity model was validated through application in an SME, leading to improvements in the accuracy of inventory data in the SME, improving maturity from 31% to 66%, reducing the inaccuracy from 10.21% to 0.53% and saving just over £22,000 within six months.

This thesis demonstrates the importance of adopting a socio-technical systems approach to improve inventory management systems and proposes a maturity model to address the research gap of how to adopt a holistic socio-technical systems approach to improve data accuracy in inventory management systems in SMEs. A second theoretical contribution is a set of data quality measures to assess inventory data. It is proposed that the approach can improve data quality in other domains. This thesis's methodological contribution is its novel application of soft systems methodology in using rich pictures to analyse interview data. This was continued into applying the stages of SSM producing a CATWOE analysis, root definition and a conceptual model, which was used to develop the framework. The framework, including the inventory management system maturity model (IMSMM), is a practical contribution for e-commerce SMEs that has achieved a measurable impact in improving the accuracy of inventory data in inventory management systems.

Item Type:	Thesis (Doctoral)
Dates:	Date Event 27 June 2025 Accepted
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Inventory Management, Inventory Management Systems, SMEs, Inventory Inaccuracy, Inaccurate Inventory, Warehouse Management, Socio-Technical System, STS, Maturity Model, Inventory Management Maturity Model
Subjects:	CAH11 - computing > CAH11-01 - computing > CAH11-01-03 - information systems CAH11 - computing > CAH11-01 - computing > CAH11-01-07 - business computing CAH17 - business and management > CAH17-01 - business and management > CAH17-01-09 - others in business and management
Divisions:	Doctoral Research College > Doctoral Theses Collection Faculty of Business, Law and Social Sciences > College of Business, Digital Transformation & Entrepreneurship
Depositing User:	Louise Muldowney
Date Deposited:	16 Jul 2025 08:40
Last Modified:	16 Jul 2025 08:40
URI:	https://www.open-access.bcu.ac.uk/id/eprint/16524

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