AN EXTREME PROGRAMMING APPROACH FOR DEVELOPING AND EVALUATING A MULTI-SITE MATERIAL MANAGEMENT SYSTEM WITH INTEGRATED AUTOMATED STOCK ALERT MECHANISMS

Abstract

Renewable energy organizations with distributed operational sites frequently experience inventory fragmentation, delayed material replenishment decisions, and information delays that disrupt operational continuity. This study addresses these challenges by proposing a Multi-Site Material Management System (SMMS) with an automated stock alert mechanism. The system was developed using the Extreme Programming (XP) methodology through four iterative cycles and implemented using a three-tier architecture, Role-Based Access Control (RBAC), React.js, Node.js, and MySQL. Field observations conducted within a renewable energy company managing a central warehouse and 2 remote operational sites revealed critical pre-system issues: approximately 40 material requests per month submitted via informal channels without standardized workflow, inventory records maintained separately using 3 different spreadsheets with inconsistency rate of 15-20%, and no automated mechanism to detect critical stock conditions, resulting in 3-4 documented stock shortage incidents per quarter. The proposed system integrates material request workflows, multi-level approval processes, shipment tracking, receipt confirmation, inventory management, and automated stock alerts with three severity levels (WARNING, CRITICAL, OUT_OF_STOCK). Comprehensive evaluation including Black Box Testing across 20 test scenarios, User Acceptance Testing with 15 end-users, System Usability Scale assessment yielding 78/100 score, and operational metrics demonstrated significant improvements: material request processing time reduced from 3.2 days to 0.8 days representing 75% improvement, inventory accuracy improved from 87% to 96%, and user satisfaction reached 4.2/5.0. Functional evaluation achieved a 100% success rate. The results indicate that the system improves inventory accuracy, accelerates material request processing, and enhances coordination among distributed operational sites. These findings demonstrate that integrating automated stock alert mechanisms into multi-site inventory systems can improve operational readiness and support more proactive inventory management through a combination of centralized visibility, threshold-based monitoring, and structured approval workflows.