Abstract

This research study is concerned with the effect of store design on materials handling a case study of Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) kaduna for better understanding of the work effort was made at the introduction stage to explain the general importance of store design with special consideration being placed on its impact in an industry especially Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) kaduna. The general problem was also emphasized on such problems as negligence of management of store activities, construction cost, poor storage design. Also discussed is objective of the study which include, to examine the effect of store design on materials handling to ascertain difficulties associated with store design on materials handling. The significant of the study to the academic, the organization, the entire populace and the researcher is also discussed research question was also derived which include to know if store design have effect on material handling and the difficulties associated with store design. The survey research designed is adopted simple sampling procedure was employed. The researcher used questionnaire, interview and documentary source techniques too retrieve data. The likert four rating scale techniques is adopted to analyse the data. Finding made among which are, that store design have a great effect on materials handling activities in the organization that the organization store design is often faced with difficulties and that engagement of professional will help to curb the difficulties faced by the store design. Also the researcher included that the design of store should be in accordance with the store operational activities of the firms, that the organization placed on importance consideration on store design and lastly amongst recommendation made are, the engagement of professional in the management of he store design activities of the organization, align the store design with the organization activities to effect the effectiveness of the activities and that the top management should give a considerable support to the design of the store activities to ensure its effectiveness.     

Chapter I:

1.1     Background of the Study

A store is an essential limb of an organization. It is the depository of all materials required by the organizations in the organization and supplies materials as an when required.

It is important to note that the store is an area of great expenditure in manufacturing and assembling plant. It is true that store function is a major cost centre which make use of 70-75% annual budget of the firm (Dangana 2005) and thus it can affect saving and therefore contribute significantly and therefore contribute significantly to the profit of the organization.

However, in today’s highly competitive and globalized business world, store design is of great importance as a substantial number of instances have show that people charge with the function and responsibility of designing and managing the store are given little or no attention in the organization. This may be as a result of poor understanding store design or inappropriate application of it.

More so, the variety of items sometimes, store is so large that a planned system is necessary to keep the secured and in order. The stored items should be identified and issues with minimum effort and minimum time. Thus this calls for a store structure suitable to carry on various activities efficiently and productivity and developing a system that ensure safety of men and materials.

Most often the design of a store house determiners to a large extent the materials movement pattern and the limited type of handling equipment that can be used. This result in fact that most customers demand for goods and services within and outside the organization are incremental in nature as they opt for speedy, convenient and reliable delivery of materials and service.

However, the need to curtail the amount of waste and improve the level of customer’s service within such organization has brought the use of the term store design ad its impact in materials handling. It should also be noted at this junction that any knowledge of how a store should be designed must incorporate the knowledge of how a store should be designed must incorporate the knowledge of how materials would be moved.

Therefore, the research work develops the effective utilization of store design and it prospect in the organization with reference to enhancing and ensuring effective materials handling in the organization.

1.2     Statement of the Problem

One vital decision that firms make is how to design and where locate their storage facilities. This decision goes a long way in determining the extent to which the firm will achieve its objectives. That is to get products and services to customer faster and at lesser cost to the firm and customers.

Neglecting to manage the activities effectively can result in inefficiencies that out weigh gains or benefit in good management of such vital activities as transportation materials handing, inventory management and maintenance and information flow.

However, organizations are faced with various problems to design a store house. Some of these problems may include; construction cost, cost of installation, cost of land, rate levied upon the new building by local authority and cost of survey, planning designing. Other problems may also include cost of materials handling i.e (equipment needed to load and off load materials and also for transporting materials), cost of storage equipment needed, and payment to building contact and for other incidental cost.

As a result, a poor storage design will result in poor performance such as materials damages and obsolescence, theft and pilfering, poor communication network, difficulties in the movement of materials within and outside etc regardless of the firms position in the industry or its product acceptability in other location.