The effect of material handling on the profitability of manufacturing organizations

Abstract

The study examined material handling and profitability in manufacturing organizations with specific reference to Mukwano group of companies. It was guided by research objectives which were; to find the effect of material handling on the profitability of manufacturing organizations, to find the effect of materials storage on the profitability of manufacturing organizations, to find how record keeping affects the profitability of manufacturing organizations and to find the effect of equipment on the profitability of manufacturing organizations. The study used a cross sectional survey design with both qualitative and quantitative results while data was collected using questionnaires and interviews. In data analysis, frequencies, percentages, standard deviation and mean were used to show the magnitude of the effect the independent variables on dependent variable. The population of the study was 280 respondents and the sample size was 162 though the actual participants were 131. The respondents were given questionnaires and in percentage, those returned were 80.9% and the un returned were 19.1%. The male took the highest percentage which was 55.7% Study findings revealed that material handling has a positive significant effect on the profitability of manufacturing organizations. According to the study results, it was found out that there is positive significant effect storage and record keeping has on the profitability of manufacturing organizations. The study concluded that storage is more important than equipment and record keeping as far as material handling and profitability is concerned, this therefore means that if proper storage is maintained, the organization can achieve higher profitability. The study therefore recommends that the organization should have enough stores so as to meet every need of its members and staffs, so as to have guaranteed effectiveness of material handling. The other stores could be in other regions so as to be able to distribute to the nearer regions