1.1 Introduction
Standardization is Organizing and showcasing a manufacturing firm’s product or potentially benefits abroad are confronted with the choice of whether to institutionalize their product variants which simply means “one size fits all” method (Lundeteg, 2012). As industrial revolution was in peak many manufacturing industries around the world moved from mass production to mass customization. As per then, customers need was to gain a desirable product even if the lead time was higher than of buying a common product which everyone has.
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, Research hypothesis and questions, Limitations of the Study and Definition of technical terms.
1.2 Background of Study
Nigerian Bottling Company Plc (NBC) is one of the largest companies in Nigeria today. NBC is the leading producer of coca-cola, fanta, sprite etc with branches all over the states of the federation. Standardization is a broader and more inclusive activity than ordinary determination of specification since the task of purchasing includes procurement of materials, inventory control, profit creation.
The purchasing executives must be future conceives that is must anticipate change, forecast the direction and intensify those changes through standardization techniques and adjust their organization purchasing programmes through standardization techniques. There are various professional in today's dynamic business environment that makes it mandatory for all the business organizations especially manufacturing ones like Nigerian Bottling Company (NBC) to introduce standardization of materials. For the purpose of obtaining their supplies and design, a basic standard which involves the system of information handling which tends to concentrate on the future to solve and prevent problems. All the efforts are towards objectives attainment which is the watch word of every organization whether profit or non-profit oriented organization. This is the reason why every organization tries to economize resources.
The word “standardization” applies to all concept of the economy especially the manufacturing ones in the process of achieving the laid down goals and objectives. Modern techniques in business demand that planned system and tools should be adopted and formulated to meet the organizational requirement, one of such tool is the standardization of material.
However, standardization can be defined as the identification of methods, practices and techniques, involves in the manufacture, construction and use of materials, machine and products for all line of endeavor which present the necessity for performing repetitive work. The application of standardization is highly neglected in Nigeria. The urgent need of materials to prevent production has encouraged many organizations to set up separate material management department to ensure continuity of supplies. Standardization of materials act as guide to business executive by controlling the scope of procurement to realistic approach on its goal and objectives. Standardization achieves one of the objectives of purchasing when the right quality and quantity is the operative and objective word in purchasing.
The buyers vest much effort to negotiate price terms, if not time and money would be wasted if what has been brought is unsuitable for the purpose intended. The rigorous specification is useless, if it is wrongly drain in the first place while the first specification most often is a waste of supplies fail to comply with it or quality failure can be very costly and if reflection is not only failure by outside supplier but also failure by the purchasing department. This paper identifies the problem and prospect of materials management standardization in a manufacturing organization in a manufacturing organization like Nigeria Bottling Company (NBC) which lay emphasis in the managerial and technical application of the tool in order to achieve the organizational goals.
Therefore, in Nigeria where the research was carried out, the activities that was conducted is to know the Effect of Standardization in Improving the Management of Material in a Manufacturing Industry.
1.3 Statement of Problem
Today's dynamic business cannot adult guess work in establishing a procedure for design, specification and quality adherence to private and public companies in Nigeria have failed to recognize the need to maintain an adequate source of supply and acceptable yardstick where material produced can be measured and quality intended.
The purchasing department is the main authorized representation of any organization where large or small scale in dealing with the supplier for material and other related services.
Therefore, standardization needs an experienced specialist especially a qualified purchasing executives who has vested much effort in procurement of material and a wealthy experienced purchasing executive would be in better position to liaise with the design or quality engineer, to establish a standard for material management used in the organization to achieve mass production in which would invariably lead to construction and increased machine utilization.
The main thing to be analyzed before implementing standardization is checking the customer value for the type of production, manufacturing goods and innovative products are the two variety of products available in market in which innovative products like fashion have high customer value and they are ready to wait even if lead time is high and manufacturing goods are not fancy which will be gradually affected by lead time problems (Ghantous, 2008).
1.4 Aim and Objectives of Study
The aim of the study is to scrutinize the Effect of Standardization in Improving the Management of Material in a Manufacturing Industry. In achieving this aim, the following specific objectives were laid out as follows:
- To determine whether manufacturing industry like Nigerian Bottling Company (NBC) use standardization in procurement of their material management.
- To ascertain whether standardization of materials input is used in their policy formulation with purchasing content.
- To ascertain whether standardization of material have been undertaken by the organization
- To find out how productive the system have helped the company to achieve its corporate objective
- To determine whether this singular activity have achieve cost reduction for this manufacturing company.
1.5 Research Questions
The study came up with research questions so as to be able to ascertain the above stated objectives. The specific research questions for the study are stated below as follows:
- What type of materials management is in use?
- What is specification?
- Is the price critical?
- What is the role of standardization in a manufacturing industry?
- How can quality are attained in this regard?
1.6 Research Hypothesis
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 One
- H0: Standardization does not play any role in materials management Manufacturing Industry
- H1: Standardization has a role to play in materials management in Manufacturing Industry
Hypothesis Two
- H0: Standardization is not necessary for material input in Manufacturing Industry
- H1: Standardization is necessary for material input in Manufacturing Industry
1.7 Significance of Study
The research will serve as a useful guide to manufacturing organization on the role of standardization which forms the life blood of their set up. The research work will also be a reference material for researchers on how to standardize in an industry or organization.
- It is however the researcher's belief that the information gather from this research will help the employers and employees of NBC to know whether their method of standardization are effective or not.
- It will enlighten the public on the role of standardization in their establishment.
- It will highlight the weak-point of the procedure in use.
- It is intended to recommend better ways of standardization procedure.
- The reader might benefit from it by considering the role of standardization as the perceives it in his own environment.
1.8 Scope of Study
The study focuses on the Effect of Standardization in Improving the Management of Material in a Manufacturing Industry in Nigeria.
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.
- 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).
1.10 Definition of Terms
This involves the explanation of some technical term and professional jargon used in the study by the author of this research.
- Standardization: The unification of methods, practices and techniques, involved in the manufacture, construction and use of materials, machine and products for all line of endeavor which present the necessity for performing repetitive work.
- Standardization Programme: Involves a careful study of the list of all item stocked so as to determine the intended use or uses of each of the items.
- Component: Items that is indivisible without damage and firms parts of the product.
