The contribution of production management to the economy of Nigeria

The contribution of production management to the economy of Nigeria

The contribution of production management to the economy of my country Nigeria are numerous in diverse ways.  Production management, which is concern with efficient management of physical resources of materials, men, machines and structures which are designed to produced products or services of economy value to the society from the definition above it is apparent of any nation.  However contribution does not only come from positive angle, but also from negative side.

The experience of such natural resource-laden countries as Saudi Arabia, Kuwait (and even Nigeria in the roaring 1970s) tend to suggest that what may be lost through poor productivity could perhaps be more than compensation is, however, rather wasteful in that valuable resources are wantonly frittered away in the form of high resource exploitation cost, importation of manufactured products which could have been locally produce, and a massive hemorrhage of foreign exchange expended for services which could have been procured from local sources.

Production management has however contributed to the economy of Nigeria in the following ways.  Reduction in production cost, increase of National income, economy growth and development, increase in foreign exchange earning and high profitability.

1. Reduction in Production Cost: The effective and efficient production management in our economy has brought about reduction in the waste of resources (men, machine and material) effective flows of production process e.t.c., this in return has limit the liquidation rate of industries in the country and help to some extend solve unemployment problem of the nation.
2. Increase of National Income: The reduction in Liquidation rate has increase commercial activities of the consumer and the producers, because the output of one company is also an input to another enterprise.  Example for car production company, some of her inputs are sheet steel, rubber, spark plugs, electricity, spray-painting, forklift trucks, cost accountant e.t.c. One firm mines iron ore and sells it to steel manufacturer.  The receives of wages and salary or profit of this activities and the total flow of these goods and services produced over a given period of time made up  the national income.  This lead to economic growth and a better standard of living for the country.
3. economy growth and development:  The increase in commercial activities in Nigeria lead to reduction of unemployment and increase in payment of tax to government thereby increasing growth and development of the nation.
4. Increase in Foreign Exchange Earning: The efficient production management of some company like Guinness Nigeria Plc and Nigerian cable wire company lead to production of exportable goods and services which in turn increase the foreign exchange earning of this good country.
5. High Profitability: A good production management system lead to reduction in the waste of resources and increase commercial activities thereby increasing the profitability of the organization and her employees and the country as a whole.

From the angle of negativity, production management has not be able to be efficient and effective in the country due to the following reasons, lack of professional skill, insufficient capital and low level of planning and control.

1. Lack of Professional Skill: IN many firm of the country especially in public sector there production personnel which lack the skill so production management, while some other lack technology advancement restricting them to manual use of production, all these causes wastage of resources and low profitability to the economy.
2. Insufficient Capital resources: Developing countries like Nigeria lack some resources to excel in this fast growing world.  Lack of sophisticated computer application and growth in technology production management has lead to not able to successfully compete with other developed countries.
3. Low Level of Planning and control: The planning and control process of production management in the economy cannot be measured with some developed nation, like Japan.  Lack of planning and control is common in government sector because many display “I don’t care attitude” and “not my father property” towards government property.  The reason is that the job is gotten not my merit but by father, mother, brother or sister influence.  This has reduced the developing rate of Nigeria economy.

Conclusively, the efficient and effective process of production management in a company or any nation increases the standard of living and the development rate of the economy.