Usually materials form a major part of the total cost and constitute one of the most important assets in the majority of business enterprises.
The success of a business enterprise depends to a large extent upon efficient purchasing, storage, consumption and control of materials. Thus needs for material control to keep the materials cost at a minimum point cannot be over-emphasised. The objectives of material control are as follows:
(i) To ensure availability of materials- There should be continuous flow of all types of materials” for efficient and uninterrupted flow of production. The achieve this objective, minimum quantity for each material is fixed so that the production process is not interrupted.
(ii) To avoid excessive investment in materials- There should be no overstocking of materials because that would result in loss of interest, higher go down charges, deterioration in quality, etc. For this purpose, maximum quantity for each material is fixed.
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(iii) To ensure the quality of materials- The exact quality or specification of materials is to be determined while purchasing materials. The quality of materials purchased should neither be too superior nor too inferior. In the former case the price paid for the materials will be unnecessarily high and in the latter case the quality of the main product will below:
(iv) To ensure minimum wastage- There should be minimum wastage of materials while materials are being kept in the go down or in the store as far as possible. Store-keeper and workers should be given proper training to handle the materials in a scientific, way to minimise wastage.
(v) To protect the materials from pilferage and obsolescence- There is possibility of losses due to pilferage and obsolescence. To avoid such type of losses, maximum quantity for each material is fixed and a proper method of issue of materials is followed.
(vi) To ensure timely action for procurement of materials- Purchase of materials should be made at proper time so that the advantage of favorable market can be achieved.
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(vii) To maintain troy records for materials- The information about availability of materials should be available continuously by maintain proper records for materials so that production may be planned and required materials are purchased in time.