QUALITY CONTROL AND INSPECTION OF PURCHASE MATERIALS

ABSTRACT

The study examined the the quality control and inspection of purchase materials. The survey research was used in this study to sample the opinion of respondents. This method involved random selection of respondents who were administered with questionnaires. Relevant conceptual, theoretical and empirical literature was reviewed. The target population of the study comprised selected employees of bottling company in Lagos State, Nigeria. Three hundred (300) respondents constitute the sample size for this study. The descriptive and analytical approach was adopted using Chi-square to test and analyze the hypotheses earlier stated. Findings revealed that there is a significant impact of social intervention policy on poverty alleviation in Nigeria. Findings revealed that there is a significant impact of quality control and inspection on purchase materials. Findings of the study also reveals that Lack of competence is one of the factors affecting quality control and inspection in firms. Findings of the study also reveals that inadequate work force is one of the factors affecting quality control and inspection in firms. Finally, finding of the study further reveals that there is a significant relationship between quality control and inspection on purchase materials. It was therefore concluded that quality control and inspection significantly impacted on the purchased materials of bottling company in Nigeria.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1. 1. Background of the Study

Quality is one of the key requirements of today’s life. The main issue of quality might be outlined by customers’ satisfaction. A customer requires and expects a product or service according to their own understanding of it and, as a result, this product or service can be either found by its perception or not. Thus, quality should be managed and controlled through all processes within an organization. To establish and maintain quality, companies and organizations are adopting quality management into their strategies.

Quality management is defined in ISO 9000 as coordinated activities to guide and control an organization about quality (Finnish Standards Association SFS 2012). Therefore, to achieve this management of quality, companies have to establish quality management systems that supplement quality management. The area of applying quality management systems is quite wide that can vary through all processes of purchasing, manufacturing and delivering of a product or service. All stages are equally significant in the scope of quality management. However, this study is focused on the purchasing department of a company. Thus, quality management and its application will be examined in the thesis only within the functions of the purchasing part of an organization. The purchasing department was chosen because of the wide scope of functions and its operation both in internal and external environments of a company. The purchasing department is responsible for sufficient processes within an organization e.g. procuring materials, supplier selection, etc. Thus, to ensure all these processes and maximize efficiency, a company has to implement a well organized quality management system.

Effective quality management practices carry both prospects (Eniola & Olorunleke et al., 2018) and challenges (Hackman & Wageman, 2015; Kindleman & Shimbo, 2019; Mohammad & Price, 2004). Notably, petroleum producing companies are faced with challenging and increasingly nonconformities (Iannuzzi et al., 2018; Kindleman & Shimbo, 2019) related to quality-related problems in procured technical materials for project construction and oilfield facility maintenance activities (TOTAL Yearly Report, 2017).

Therefore, producing companies could strategically strengthen the conditions (Connolly, 2020; Eskandarian et al., 2016; Parvadavardini & Devadasan, 2016) that sustain them both in production processes (Kindleman & Shimbo, 2019) and continuous improvement (Dubey & Gunasekaran, 2015; Lam & Robertson, 2015; Timans et al., 2016) in revenue generation for the Nigerian government. Management should give attention to management practices in organizations (Dubey & Gunasekaran, 2015; Parvadavardini & Devadasan, 2016) for continuous improvement and maintenance of the procured technical material's quality to run its facilities and projects (Macharia & Mwangangi, 2016; Muvunyi & Mulyungi, 2018; TOTAL Yearly Report, 2017). The management practices in petroleum operations management are material management (Carstea et al., 2014) and total quality management (Muvunyi & Mulyungi, 2018).

Quality is a term that carries important meaning to both producers and consumers. In the global market place today, many organizations realized that their survival in the business world depend highly on producing high quality products and services. Indeed, a lot of organizations have emphasized that quality must be put in place, integrated within the management system, especially in terms of bringing the end products or services to the consumers, especially with intense competition arriving from the rival(International Business Research, 2009). According to Gbadeyan and Adeoti, (2005) quality is the conformance to requirement and those requirement must be defined in measurable and clearly stated term. Quality is one of the goals and objectives organizations seek to achieve. But often times, this goal is not achieved due to some challenges in the firms. Thequality of any company?s product or service determines its position in the market. This is because customers desire to get the best value for their money. The quality of product or service can only be defined by the customer (Deming, 2000). This means that for a firm to be satisfied with the quality of its goods or services, its customers must be satisfied with it. Quality is a complex concept that has become one of the most appealing in management theories. This is to say that every business today wants to produce quality products or services that are acceptable to consumers, which are also affordable.

Quality control is a functional management discipline, which is responsible for defining quality purpose. The prerequisites for effective quality control are freedom from deficiency and minimization or reduction of the following costs; waste, re-work replacement and inspection costs. All these are manufacturing problems that should not only be detected and corrected at the earliest time but prevented if possible (June, 2000). Quality control can therefore be achieved by establishing a standard for effective and efficient quality in the following areas:In the factory building, machinery and equipment design and installation, manufacturing system and process as well as product identification system, in product design, in the market by way of intensive consumer response program which gives the needed feedback.

In addition to the established standards, tolerance limits are set for every important quality. These tolerance limits are limits of variations beyond which the variations will not be accepted. The firms must determine what quality is needed by their customers and must try as much as possible to satisfy these needs. Meeting this quality needed by consumers should be a collective responsibility of everybody in the organization. The market research division will find out what these needs are; products development division will create a design to equate with the needs; planning division will devise a process for executing the product desired and the production units will regulate the process to achieve the desired product quality. Also quality control in manufacturing firms will seek to ensure efficiency in terms of purchasing quality raw materials, the machine or conversion equipment and quality of labor or human effort because the quality of these factors mentioned above determine the quality of the end product. (Orga, 2011). Furthermore, Nigerian business environment changes with ever changing work processes, practice and employee habits. As a result of these changes, firms that are resistant to change or that cannot respond quickly and adequately to change are prone to have problem, which will in long run affect their productivity and profit margin adversely. Although the success of every manufacturing firm depends mainly on the degree of its reputation for supplying quality products to its consumers. Yet, the realization of quality standard has been a problem to manufacturing firm. For manufacturing firms to be successful, they must place great emphasis on the establishment and maintenance of quality control policies of their firm and that of government. The personnel responsible for effective quality control must be familiar with required activities in all quality control systems. It is required that quality procedure for each section must be strictly adhered to in order to achieve success. It is based on this backdrop that the present study seeks to examine the quality control and inspection of purchase materials in bottling company in Nigeria.

1. 1. Statement of the Problem

Exploring the lived experiences of managers regarding total quality management practices related to procurement performance could be a suitable approach for a planned change process initiation, continuous improvement of the quality of procured technical materials, and remaining competitive in an ever-aggressive global market (Barton, 2017). The procured materials such as bulk valves types, blind flanges, piping and fittings, steel structures, and electrical and instrument cables have quality-related issues (Total Yearly Report, 2017). These materials are used for oilfield facility maintenance and project construction by petroleum producing companies in Nigeria. The quantities of materials in stock increased from 2012 to 2017 due to perceived quality-related issues and little attention given to total quality management practices (Carstea et al., 2014).In order to assess product standards to ensure that sub-standard products are detected, SON introduced the use of Electronic Product Registration Scheme (EPRS). Also in a situation where consumers are harmed as a result of using any of such sub-standard products, compensations will be given. It is based on this backdrop that the present study seeks to examine the quality control and inspection of purchased materials of bottling company in Nigeria.

1.3 Objectives of the study

          The broad objective of this study is to examine the quality control and inspection of purchase materials. Other specific objectives of the study include;

1. To determine the significant impact of quality control and inspection on purchase materials

2. To identify the factors that affect quality control and inspection of materials

3. To ascertain the relationshipbetween quality control and inspection on purchase materials

4. To identify ways of improving between quality control and inspection on purchase materials

1.4 Research Questions

          The following questions guided this study;

1. What isthe significant impact of quality control and inspection on purchase materials?
2. What are the factors that affect quality control and inspection of materials?
3. Is there a significant relationshipthe relationshipbetween quality control and inspection on purchase materials?
4. What are the ways of improving between quality control and inspection on purchase materials?

1.5 Research Hypotheses

          The following were hypothesized;

Hypothesis 1

H0:  There is no significant impact of quality control and inspection on purchase materials. 

H1: There is a significant impact of quality control and inspection on purchase materials.

Hypothesis 2

H0:  There is no significant relationship between quality control and inspection on purchase materials. 

H1: There is a significant relationship between quality control and inspection on purchase materials.

1.6 Significance of the Study

          This study could help company leaders address challenges total quality management practices may have on the procurement system, as these companies are a significant revenue-generating sector for the Nigerian government.

Findings revealed the strategies managers could adopt for a planned organizational change for continuous quality improvement. More specifically, several kinds of literature have revealed the influence of total quality management practices on business, firm, and organizational performance. The consequential result is a lack of available hands-on information used by petroleum industries on how to alleviate the continuous increase in quality-related issues of procured technical materials for oilfield facility maintenance and project construction.

Contributions to business practices include the complexity with which employees may understand managers' lived experiences about total quality management practices related to quality performance.

The findings from this research help fill the gap in total qualitymanagement practices and provide petroleum producing companies' employees with information to guide stock reduction initiatives, quality improvement processes, and cost savings in the technical services. This study contributed to the literature on total quality management and performance for continuous improvement in the quality of products and services.    

1.7 Scope of the Study

          This study is limited to the quality control and inspection of purchased materials in bottling companies in Nigeria.