Production Planning and Control Practices Influencing Consumer Satisfaction in Nigerian Manufacturing Industry

Abstract

KEYWORDS Quality control; capacity utilization; waiting time ABSTRACT The study examined the influence of production planning and control practices on consumer satisfaction in the manufacturing industry. It specifically looked into the capacity utilization, short-term scheduling techniques, waiting time and processing, and quality control of the firms to enhance customer satisfaction. Twenty-two respondents that were directly concerned with production and were top officers were involved in the survey. The respondents were randomly selected from among the top corporation in the southwestern part of Nigeria. Primary and secondary sources of information were fully exploited. Structured questionnaire was designed using Likert scale to ferret pertinent information from the respondents. Data were analyzed using simple descriptive and parametric statistical tools to test the hypotheses. The results revealed that capacity planning practices of the firms lead to efficient use of facilities and equipments at computed 't' value -1.6862, reduction in waste and increased profit computed 't' value 0.7884. Short term scheduling, which is necessary in minimizing process and customer waiting time was revealed at 't' value 0.3942. The quality control was revealed at 't' value -0.25667 indicating consumer satisfaction. The study concluded that the production planning and control practices has impacted on the efficient utilization of the resources, waste reduction reduced waiting time and processing, thus contributing to the profitability of the industry. It is concluded further that effectives production planning and control practices contribute significantly to the consumer satisfaction.