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10. widow pass:- it entitled to the widow of the railway employee.
Q 33. Inventory Control :-
Inventory means the sum of items of stores held in stock at various Stores Depots under
Stores Department. Inventory Stores more comprehensively known as material management
is one of the four ‘M’ of the management viz., men, material, machines and money.
Inventories of raw materials, stores and spare parts, and the value of unfinished jobs as work
in progress in Railway workshop represent essential, but unproductive capital investment.
Efficient Inventory management requires lowest stock levels with highest service levels. The
objective is secured through budgetting for inventories after careful scheduling of deliveries
against purchases and regular monitoring of the changing needs of indentors.
There is acute shortage of resources for even renewals and replacements of considerably
large number of assets like Rolling Stock, Track, Signalling equipments etc. The location of
resources for expansion, development and modernization is gaining secondary priority. Due
to such accumulation of arrears there is no possibility to reduce the cost of service and
generate resources. Inventory control is one of such vital management tools, where even a
marginal reduction could be considered, reduction in cost of service.
Inventories on Railways are:-
1. Cost of physical stock of stores held at various Stores Depots together with balances
outstanding under Stores Suspense Account.
2. Work in progress in various Railway Workshops, Production Units i.e. value of
unfinished jobs.
3. Value of Stores advanced for fabrication of loans of materials to others.
Objectives of Inventory Control :-
The objects of Inventory control are as under:-
To avoid blocking of Capital;
(a) To avoid payment of dividend to General Revenues;
(b) To utilise the save Capital on other activities;
(c) To have over all National economy;
(d) To minimise carrying cost;
(e) To minimise handling charges;
(f) To minimise obsolescence and depreciation; and
(g) To minimise ordering cost.
To achieve the above objectives, some of the measures adopted for inventory control on
Indian Railways are as under:-
(a) Proper Planning and Programming;
(b) Codification of items;
(c) Standardisation and variety reduction;
(d) Selective Control by ABC analysis;
(e) Progressive Computerisation of inventory transactions;
(f) Creation of Inventory Cells;
(g) Scrutiny of Stores balances;
(h) Disposal of Scrap; and
(i) Make or by decisions
Q 34. Modern Techniques of Inventory Control -
Inventory Control Consist of the following modern techniques :-