Assessing construction materials manufacturers' warehouse process from a customer satisfaction perspective

Abstract

Background: The objective of warehouse processes is to satisfy customer’s desires and requirements whilst using house, equipment and labour effectively. However, in Nigeria studies have revealed operational problems in warehousing and a lack of customer satisfaction in the delivery of construction materials. Objectives: The aim of this study was to evaluate the level of customer satisfaction with the delivery of construction material from the manufacturers’ warehouses to customers or other terminals, with a view to improving the operations. Method: This article adopted a case study research design method in which quantitative data were collected and analysed. The target population was the North-Central geo-political zone of Nigeria. A total of 32 construction material manufacturers were purposively selected from the zone. The observation and measurement approaches were adopted for data collection. A total of 72 customers’ orders were observed and recorded to be representative of deliveries from the sampled (n = 32) manufacturers’ warehouses to other terminals. A customer quintile benchmark metric was also adopted for analysis and for comparing field results with best practices. Results: The findings revealed that the involved construction material manufacturers’ warehouse processes, were suboptimal and ineffective in terms of perfect order completion and total order cycle time. These results indicated major opportunities for improvement. Conclusion: This article concludes with providing construction material manufacturers with information about their warehouse processes that might help to ensure that the construction material arrives at its final destination in optimal quality, time and cost.