| dc.description.abstract | The purpose of the study was to analyze consumable cost controls in manufacturing companies, a case of Roofings Limited. This was driven by the fact that implementation of effective controls to manage consumable costs enhances overall performance of the manufacturing company and it is widely acceptable by scholars and policy makers. The study was guided by three specific research objectives which are: -to find out the determinants of consumable cost controls at Roofings Limited, to establish the challenges associated with consumable cost controls at Roofings Limited and to design appropriate cost controls to manage consumables at Roofings Limited. The study used a descriptive research design with both quantitative and qualitative approaches. Units of analysis were staff at Roofings Limited. Primary data was collected from the managers and section heads using interview guide while questionnaires were administered to team leaders and machine operators/other staff at the company. SPSS version 20 analyzed the questionnaire data to generate descriptive statistics whereas Atlas.ti analyzed interviews with thematic themes to supplement quantitative findings. Findings from the study indicated that majority of the respondents agreed to quality management guidelines, activity analysis to identify and describe pattern of consumable costs, proper and clear cost documentation, process re-engineering to control costs, value chain process, Activity Based Costing (ABC), performance reports, bottom-up cost control measures, performance sales and production reports determine the consumable cost controls in the production cycle. However, poor supervision of approved cost control strategies, difficulty in monitoring different sources of day-to-day cost data, inaccurate figures, wrong cost centers, poor quality items, outdated data and lack of financial commitment were challenges facing the controls for consumable costs in the production cycle. Suggested strategies were regular reconciliation of cost controls, modern production techniques like target costing, ABC classification of materials, FIFO; monthly trends on consumption analysis reports, team communication on entire operations and vendor feed forward and backward cost controls. The study recommends that Roofings Limited should encourage sharing of knowledge amongst team members to develop innovative mechanisms of separating consumable items from spares, ABC classification of material and invest more resources to boost infrastructures in relation to Information Communication Technology to strengthen controls for consumable cost to support efficiency. | en_US |
