Efficiency of procurement processes at Askari Cement Ltd. Wah

Abstract

The study focuses on the procurement processes at Askari Cement Ltd Wah. Askari Cement Ltd is one of the most prominent manufactures of cement in Pakistan. It was established in 1921 and since that time it has been progressed very effectively and efficiently and has been able to create good will in the industry in which it is existing throughout the world. Askari Cement Ltd copes up with the world demand of housing and infrastructure which consist of the needs of shareholders, customers, architects, local communities. These days Askari Cement Ltd has two plants that are performing operations in an effective way. One plant is located in Wah, Punjab, Pakistan while the other one is located in Nizampur, KPK with the collective production capability of 8295 tons per day. Both cement plants are working under Fauji Foundation. The main purpose of this study is to have the hands on knowledge of different processes that the procurement department is practicing. This study also includes the information regarding different departments that are directly or indirectly related to procurement department. Our primary focus was to analyze the working of Procurement, Inventory Management, and Warehousing of Askari Cement Ltd Wah. To complete this project we thoroughly discuss various issues related to Supply Chain & Materials Management with respective representatives of Askari Cement Ltd. During this activity we observed various problems in their operations like excessive procurement, space problem in warehouse, and lead time was very high etc. In order to address these problems, we have given some suggestions & recommendations which were very much appreciated. Thesesuggestions & recommendations are further discussed in detail in Chapter # 5. As this is a qualitative study so, there was a need for interviews including open ended questions for data gathering purposes. These questions can be found in appendix for reference. We finally concluded that working of Procurement and Materials Management can be further improved and the weak areas could be rectified if the influence of Govt. regularity bodies like Public Procurement Regularity Authority (PPRA) is kept limited.