Evaluation of the Operations and Performance of Small Scale Foundry Enterprises in Lagos State, Nigeria
Loading...
Date
2015-05-12
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
The study identified the types of small-scale foundries operating in Lagos state, evaluate their operations management and also assess their performances. This was with a view to recommending strategies that would enhance the performances of the industry.
The data for the study were obtained from 30 small-scale foundry enterprises in Lagos State and 150 of their consumers within and outside the State. Questionnaire administration and design interview were the research instruments used during the course of the study. The questionnaire elicited information on their operations management, problems encountered by the small scale foundry enterprises, performance rating of the enterprises by their consumers in terms of cost, quality reliability, customer service attitude.
The results showed that majority of the foundry enterprises (83%) produced varieties of products and also accepted jobs from different customers. This implied that most of the small foundries in Lagos State could be categorized as jobbing foundries. Few of these foundries were production foundries. Some of the foundry enterprises were able to develop new products and processes within the past 5-10 years. The performances of the enterprises in terms of reliability of the organization (2.11), product and service quality (2.29), business relationship with consumers (2.09), delivery time (2.01) and responsiveness to consumer feedback (2.03) were satisfactory. However some factors such as non availability of raw materials exportation of scraps, inconsistency in government policies, inadequate or non existence of funds, use of obsolete or outdated equipments, poor product precision and instability of electric power supply were factors limiting their operations.
In conclusion, the performances of the foundry enterprises were not optimum due inadequate funds, government policies and poor infrastructural facilities for their operations.
Description
Keywords
Small-scale foundries, Small-scale foundries operating in Lagos state, Foundry enterprises