Customers/requesters complained that the Supply Chain Department was not responsive to their needs, never had adequate inventory on hand, frequently did not know what inventory was on hand and where the inventory was stored, was taking too long to handle emergencies in addition to standard orders and was unable to provide status information on customer orders/requisitions and supplier purchase orders in progress. At the present time, a significant number of customers/ requesters had "broken" the Procurement Buyers' letter codes and were beating the order processing system by adding the appropriate buyer code to their purchase orders and placing their own orders directly with suppliers