1.1 Introduction
Production skills entails Industries and business organization be it private or public, have one thing in common, the human workforce, this could confidently be said, that organization, will not exist without its human resources, since a business organization cannot even start without a workforce, and effective and efficient skills, will gear the ability of the organization to stand out among its competitors. Usage of these resources depends on the skills and ability of the human work force in the organization. Therefore the need for effective and skilled labour is required to stage ahead in competing with other competitors. The creation of knowledge is a dynamic and continues process.
As a prelude to other parts of this study, this chapter will discuss the background upon which this study was initiated, the statement of problems that led to this study, the Aim and Objectives of the study. Others are Significance of the study, Scope of work, Limitations of the Study and Definition of technical terms.
1.2 Background of Study
Production control is defined by Burbidge (1992). In his book the principles of production control, “Is the function of management which plans, directs and controls the material supply and processing activities of an enterprise, so that the specified products are produced.By specific methods to meet an approved sales programme. These activities being carried out in such a manner that the labour, plant and capital available are used to the best advantage.
Poter (2006). In his book, effective entrepreneurship, he is of the view that companies can choose between three general strategy to build competitive advantage a differentiation strategy, a low-cost strategy and third approach, frequency used by entrepreneurs in focus, or ninche strategy. A firm that uses a differentiation strategy competes on the basis of its ability to do things differently than its major competitors do.
Beal, Reginald (2000). In his journal competing environmental scanning competitive strategy and organizational performance in small manufacturing firms is of the view that pursuit of an effective entrepreneurial strategy is mainly through advantages, has been mapped through the collection and analysis of information from existing and potential customers.
Boxalla (1996) Boxall 1996 defines strategy as a firm’s frame work of critical ends and means. This definition helps to make the point clear, that means do not flow unproblematically from ends. Rather the historically developed means to shape what ends are conceivable and possible.
Mitchell Porter (1984), Competitive advantage is a very basic word, a position a firm occupies against its competitors. The three methods of creating a sustainable competitive advantage are through: cost leadership, differentiation and focus.
Iornum (2005). In his book introduction to material management defines material management as practical in business today, as “ A confederacy of traditional materials, activities bound by a common idea; the idea of an integrated management approach to planning, conversion flow and distribution of production materials from the raw materials state to the finished product state. Managers or individual should understand that core competencies include the particular set of skills and resources firm posses as well as the way those resources are used to produce outcome.
Usage of these resources depends on the skills and ability of the human work force in the organization. Therefore the need for effective and skilled labour is required to stage ahead in competing with other competitors. The creation of knowledge is a dynamic and continues process.
1.3 Statement of the Problem
In the past years, various issues to the effective management of industries and business organizations to gain competitive advantage over others have been noticed and highlighted as follows:
Unskilled Labour: Unskilled labour has been the major problem facing industries and business organization, this is as a result of personnel managers, not recruiting and selecting employees, base on merit, skill, and expertise, but rather on selection based on man know man, a connection of whom you know to get to were you want. Hence, the effect is having the wrong people at the right place and thereby affecting the quality of service or product to be delivered to the market.
In Nigeria today, you will be surprise, seeing somebody who read a different course entirely was employed in a different field. i.e. a mechanical engineer working in a banking sector, such the expected performance will be upturned and unsatisfactorily.
Technology: Inability of industries and business organization. To use the modern ways to get things done, effectively and efficiently, is another major problem. A supplier may be expected to produce technical, particularly during the early stages of design and manufacturing.
Late Delivery speed: Inability to make the product or deliver the service quickly “in some markets a firm’s ability to deliver more quickly than its competitors may be critical. A company can offer an on-site repair service in only/or 2 hours, has a significant advantage over a competing firm that guarantee service only within 24 hours.
In-ability to cope with changes in demand: Changes its volume, in many market, a company’s ability to respond to increase and decrease in demand is important to its ability to compete. It is well known that a company with increasing demand can do little wrong.
Poor product quality and reliability: Customers wants product without defects, thus the goal of process quality is to produce defect-free products and services, product and service specification, give in dimensional tolerance and/or service error rate. Define how the product or services is to be made. Adherence to the specification is critical to ensure the reliability of the product or service as defined by its intended use.
Cost or price: Is another problem when the price of any product is too high it affects its competitive strength in the market.
Scarcity of fuel/petroleum products: I find out that sometimes when the refineries are working in full capacity, the dealers and distributors of the petroleum products hoard these products and truck drivers are said to be diverting these product elsewhere.
1.4 Aim and Objectives of the Study
The aim of the study is to analyze the impact of production skills on the organisational management using Nigeria Breweries Kaduna PLC as a case study. In achieving this aim, the following specific objectives were laid out as follows:
- To profitably export petroleum products to existing and potential market at a minimum cost
- To provide an un-interrupted supply of crude oil to the refineries
- To stimulate the sale of special products and promote import subscription of petroleum products and special products.
1.5 Research Questions
The following questions will be addressed to analyze the impact of production skills on the organisational management:
- What is the impact of production skills on business management in Nigeria Breweries Kaduna PLC?
- Does production skill enhance business management performance in Nigeria Breweries Kaduna PLC?
- What is the role of innovation in business management to ensure production skills in Nigeria Breweries Kaduna PLC?
1.6 Research Hypotheses
In order to pursue the objective of this study, the following generalized statements have been designed to guide and aids in obtaining the result for the experiment to be conducted. For this work, the null hypothesis will be represented with H0 while the alternative hypothesis will be represented with hypothesis H1.
Hypothesis I
- H0: Application of production skills in the management of industries and business organization has no significance impact profitability of an organization.
- H1: Application of production skills in the management of industries and business organization has no significance impact profitability of an organization.
1.7 Significance of the Study
The research project will be of immense benefit to all management staff and captains of industries on the important of skills. Production skills in organization and industries will help in achieving the desired objectives of providing good quality services profit making, alertness and discipline in every aspect.
The project will highlight the importance of skills in the management of industries/business organization and its importance cannot be over-emphasized, to also state that production skills in organization will contribute a lot to the survival of the organization/industry and it hedge out other competitors.
1.8 Scope of the Study
The study focuses on the application of production skills on the organisational management using Nigeria breweries Kaduna plc as a case study. However, note could be made where necessary of other petrochemical industries or department within the sector to arrive a conclusion with regards to production skills.
1.9 Limitations of the Study
During the course of this study, many things militated against its completion, some of which are:
- Time Constraint: The time frame given to accomplish this project was very short due to school academic calendar and it was carried out under pressure which made the researcher not to implement some necessary features.
- Establishment Policies: Establishment policies posed a serious limitation as most staffs are not ready to release information needed for this project work. There were lots of information needed from the staffs of this institution to enhance the study which took them time to release or they did not release at all for security purposes, hence the scope was reduced.
- Research material: availability of research material is a major setback to the scope of the study.
- Frequent power failure: This made the researcher append more money on fuel to ensure sustainable power.
- Financial Constraint: Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet, questionnaire and interview).
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