MATERIALS MANAGEMENT IN A MANUFACTURING COMPANY

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION                                      

1.1            Background to the Study

As a manager in a manufacturing company it is more necessary than ever to improve the overall productivity of the operation while such improvement requires an integrated effort involving all functional areas of the facility, specific actions are required within each functional area one of the functional areas in a manufacturing operation that is critical to the overall productivity of the company is material management. The material management involves purchasing supplier management, material handling within the facility and extensive coordination among all functional areas of the facility in conjunction with material management sapiens, Jazayeri (1998).

Once the production process is under way the attention of the operations manager shifts to the daily activities of material management the daily composes materials purchasing, inventory control and work scheduling.

Material management has a philosophy close to that of a modern marketing. In marketing the organization and its staff has to think in a marketing oriented way for example how will customers react to product change? What will be the effect on sales if we alter the packaging? With material management the same principle apply the organization and its entire staff have to consider their decision in relation to how they will after it the material side of the business topics under material management include purchasing, control, transportation, material production, planning stores, inventory control Bret (2001).

Therefore, the main point of materials management is to satisfy the need to all operating system such as manufacturing production line, promotional activities and physical distributor times. It is the operation as the customer, manager must work around the system till everything his and needs are satisfied. The material manager organization and it entire staff should however consider their decision in relation to how they will affect the materials side of the business. It is in view of the above stated facts that this study is being carried out using Nigerian Bottling Company PLC Benin City plant a manufacturing company to study the issue of material management.

1.2     Statement of Research Problem     

The major challenge that material manager face is maintain a constituent flow of materials for production. There are factors that inhabit the accuracy of inventory which results in production shortages premium freight and often adjustments.

According to the journal of Business logistics (2009) vol1 22 part 2. The major issues that all material managers face are incorrect bills of materials, in accurate cycle counts, unreported scrap shipping error, receiving errors and production reporting errors material managers have strived to determine how to manage these issues in the business sectors of manufacturing since the beginning of the industrial revolution. Although there are no known methods that eliminate the afore mentioned inventory accuracy, inhibitor there are best method available to eliminate the impact up on maintaining an interrupted flow of materials for production. Reluctance can be reduced and effectiveness when service point are clustered to reduce the amount of reluctance. An effective material management program can also revolve island approaches to shipping, receiving and vehicle movement solutions can include creating a new central loading location as well consolidating service areas and docks from separate building into one. Developing better circulation infrastructure also means reevaluating thick delivery and service vehicle routes. Base on above statement that this research seek to examine the issue of material management and the effect it has on an organization using a manufacturing company as the case study.

1.3     Research Objective

v   To examine the level of efficiency and product improvement in material management.

v To investigate whether the material management practice permit high stock turnover validation.

v To proffer useful suggestions and ideas on how to effectively manage materials in an organization (Sander 2002).

These objectives are intended to be addressed in this study.

1.4            Research Hypothesis

Hypothesis One

Ho: there is no relationship between material management and organizational performance.

Hi: there is a relationship between material management and organizational performance.

Hypothesis two

Ho: Material management has no positive impact on the effective organizational management.

Hi: Material management has positive impact on the organizational management.

1.5            Research Questions

v  To what extent does material management contribute to an organization performance?

v Does specification on materials have any (positive or negative) on the effective material management.

v To what extent does effective material handing help in the enhancement of un interrupted production?

1.5            Justification of the Study

A research of this native is significant in sense that the area of material management is one that requires constant research. It is belief that the study will throw light on the essence and importance of material management in an organization and the choice of Nigerians bottling company as my case study is due to the fact that it is a large scale manufacturing company which the setup provides for the study of this nature.

1.6     Scope of the Study

This research study centred on materials management in a manufacturing company. It covered such areas as storage, transportation procurement, materials handling planning control & value engineering etc. the research is also intended to cover a specified period of time range from 2009-2011 also information are going to be drawn within the domain of Nigerian Bottling company Plc. Benin City.