Examination Of Procurement Practices And Performance Of Organisations [A Study Of Selected Manufacturing Companies In Imo State]

ABSTRACT

This study has examined procurement practices and performance of manufacturing firms in south east geopolitical zone. Procurement practices are a set of activities undertaken by an organization to promote effective management of its supply chain. Four research questions as well as four hypotheses were formulated. Data for the study was generated from both the primary and secondary sources. The questionnaire was the major instrument used to generate the data. The statistical tools used for data analysis is the Non-Parametric Kruskalwallis test using the 15.0 version of the Minitab statistical software (MSS). The kruskawalis is a non-parametric equivalent for one-way ANOVA. The four hypotheses were tested and the findings showed that buyer-supplier relationship affect market competitiveness of organization, supplier selection procedure affect organizational sustainability, procurement process management affect quality products and services and experience of the procurement staff affect organizational viability. All these findings were achieved as the calculations indicated the their p-value are less than the level of significance (0.05). Based on that the study recommends that organizations should employ the optimum procurement practices to enhance performance, competitiveness and improve their effectiveness in the service delivery to the public.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the study

The present day business environment is characterized by an expanding number of business competitors both in local and global trades. Managers not only have to re-establish their companies to produce higher-quality products and services, decrease waste, respond rapidly to the market, also to handle their supply chain management (SCM) efficiently. Procurement practices integrate various firm’s operations and support functions, synchronizing production with new orders, purchasing with demand, scheduling and shipping with customer requirements.

Burt, and Dobbler (2004) defined procurement practices as the pattern of decisions related to acquiring required materials and services to support operations activities that are consistent with the overall corporate strategy.

Okunola (2008) described organization as an entity formed by or comprising a group of people with the aims and objective carrying out some specific functions or performance of responsibilities or the other.

Derek (2010) defined performance as the willingness of an individual to carry out the goals and objectives of an organization.

However organization performance is the ability of group of individual to achieve certain of specific goals. Organizational performance indices include; market competitiveness, organizational sustainability, quality product, and organizational viability.

1.2     Statement of the Problem

Procurement practices touch many core aspects of a company’s operations, hence their successful deployment and usage are critical to the performance and survival of various organisations in Imo State and Nigeria in general. The industry’s procurement practices are fragile and predisposed to regular discontinuities. They are usually fraught with recurrent delays and occasional inability to deliver the products to the destination markets, irrespective of the effort by the organizations in most developing countries, like Nigeria. Notwithstanding the improved performance of the procurement function, procurement is still marred by shoddy works, poor quality goods and services in these developing and underdeveloped economies. This perennial problem has precipitated a decline of procurement/supply performance of enormous manufacturing companies in Imo State and Nigeria in general. Failure or delay in implementation of recommended procurement practices like buyer-supplier relationship, supplier selection procedure, experiences of the procurement staff and procurement process management has resulted to unnecessarily high operation costs, poor inventory control, unacceptable supplier appraisals standards, uncoordinated business activities, and failure to attract and retain experienced and skilled personnel in the procurement positions, thus affecting the function’s performance of organisations.

However the procurement functions of most organisations in Nigeria do not comply with the procurement practices and performance procedures, leading to irregular and subjective decisions that have had costly consequences for many organisations. In general procurement practices is very strategic to the success or failure of an organization, but there have not been adequate attention in this regards in Nigeria, which  has resulted to lost of time, resources, finance among other factors. This situation has necessitated this research study.

1.3 Objectives of the Study

The main objective of this study is to examine procurement practices and performance of organization in the manufacturing industries in Imo state. This study aimed to achieve the following four specific objectives:

1 To examine the extent to which buyer-supplier relationship affects market competitiveness of an organisation.

2. To determine the extent to which supplier selection procedure affects organizational sustainability.
3. To examine the extent to which procurement process management affects quality products.
4. To ascertain the extent to which experience of procurement staff affects organizational viability.

1.4 Research Questions

This study sought to find answers to the following key questions:

• How has buyer-supplier relationship affected market competitiveness?

2. How has supplier selection procedure affected organizational sustainability?
3. To what degree has procurement process management affected quality products?
4. To what extent has experience of procurement staff affected organizational viability?

1.5 Hypotheses

The following hypotheses are formulated in their null form;

H₀₁: Buyer-supplier relationship does not affect market competitiveness.

• H₀₂: Suppliers selection procedure does not affect the organisational sustainability.
• H₀₃^: The degree of procurement process management does not affect the quality of product.
• H_o4: The experiences of the procurement staff do not affect the organizational viability.
  

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  Pages:  50

  Category: Project

  Format:  Word & PDF               

  Chapters: 1-5                                          

  Source: Imsuinfo                            

  Material contains Table of Content, Abstract and References.

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