SUPPLY CHAIN ANALYSIS AND DESIGN IN NIGERIA BREWERY
ABSTRACT
Due to the great importance of supply chain, it is necessary for every company to focus on its supply chain analysis and design. The purpose of this thesis was to explore the core knowledge of how good design of supply chain improves the growth of a company and satisfaction of its customers.
In order to achieve this goal of the thesis, Nigeria’s brewery sector has been used for this project. With the industry being the biggest non-oil sector in Nigeria, this study helped in gaining understanding of how the brewery industry had great impact on Nigeria market with the help of their supply chain after the birth of their pioneer company Nigerian Breweries PLC six decades ago.
Nigeria’s brewery industry was one of the very important non-oil sectors and has contributed greatly to Nigerian economic growth in recent times. Different measures of productivity are used in manufacturing for the technical and other divisions. Productivity was measured in terms of plant operation efficiency and capacity utilization. Accomplishment of assigned responsibilities was used in terms of other division of the sector.
This industry also benefited from hot and humid weather experienced in Nigeria. This factor had an impact on their volume growth and the presence of many branch offices all over the country aided the distribution of products to consumers.
However, the poor infrastructure state and power supply worked against the industry which affects the brewery industry turnover. Cost pressures and higher finance expenses were also among their delicate area which affected their revenue growth and weak earnings.
INTRODUCTION AND THESIS OBJECTIVES
Supply chain can be defined as co-operation of various business entities which contain suppliers (acquire raw materials), manufacturers (creation of these raw materials to finished goods), distributors (circulate the finished goods to retailers) and retailers (sell it to final customers). These business entities are connected by transportation, storage facilities and they are incorporated through information, planning and integrated activities.
As demonstrated in Figure 1, supply chain can be segmented into two main processes; (1) The production planning and Inventory control which comprises of the suppliers of the raw materials, manufacturer of the goods, then the storage facility and (2) The distribution and logistics which starts from the storage facility to the distributors and the retailers. These processes are combined together to form an efficient supply chain. The extent of impact of supply chain depends on the design procedure and management of these processes.
