Lean Management Practices and Organizational Performance: An Experience from Brewing Plants in South East, Nigeria

Abstract

The Study focuses on effect of Lean Management practices on the Performance of Brewing plants in South East, Nigeria. Specifically the study aimed to pursue the following objectives to determine the effect of continuous improvement on Product Quality in of Brewing Plants in South-East, Nigeria, ascertain the nature of correlation between Supply Chain and Production Cost of the Brewing plants in the South-East, Nigeria and Identify the influence of Just-In-Time delivery practice on Customer Satisfaction of Brewing plants in South-East, Nigeria. The study had a population size of (1528) of employees of the selected first banks, and sample of 431 were derived using Cochran’s sample size determination formula. The total number of 431 copies of the questionnaire was distributed while 401 copies were properly filled/returned - used while 30 copies were not properly filled. Descriptive Survey research design was used for the study. three hypotheses were tested using Pearson product moment correlation coefficient and simple linear regression tool. The findings indicated Continuous improvement had significant effect on Product Quality of the Brewing Plants of South-East, Nigeria (r = 0 .555; F = 177.326; t = 13.316; P smaller than 0.05) .There was a significant positive correlation between Supply Chain and Production Cost of the Brewing plants in the South-East, Nigeria (r = 0. 957, P smaller than .05). Just-In-Time delivery practice had significant effect on Customer Satisfaction of the Brewing Plants in South-East, Nigeria (.r = 0 .869; F= 1227.494; t = 35.036; P smaller than 0.05). The study recommends that Brewing plants in South East, Nigeria should embrace Continuous improvement which will help to maintain the realms of quality on a consistent and continuous basis, also enable firms to conduct market research and study on a regular basis having a drive in offering the products that stand as a testimony to the quality and its principles.