Bill of material processing can be described the compilation of the raw materials required to produce any desired product. This means billing the materials before processing so as to achieve a cost-effective production, avoiding less in buying the materials for production and also in the sale of products after production.

There are a lot of problems encountered in the manual bill of martial processing system. It is difficult to maintain the relationship between raw materials at the lowest level and the in which this raw materials are combined to form final products are not shown in the manual bill of material processing.

Most raw materials are used for more than one product. It becomes difficult to determine the final products in which a particular raw materials is used unless a separate record of the usage of raw materials is maintained.

In Nigeria, some companies are a manufacturing company that produces spare parts (ie motorcycle or motor spare parts).

Those companies are the producers of engine blocks, piston and Rings, brake shoes, Inner kick, Inner gear, con rod, clutch Fiber, Tyre and Tube etc. the bill of material processing system is operated manually.

Those involved are the production manager who is in charge of production. He lists all the raw materials that are needed for production. The stores manager takes Inventory of available raw materials and notes those that are not available. He then notifies the purchasing manager.

The purchasing manager who is the head of the purchasing department is also involved. He is responsible for buying and bringing down the materials from the source.

The Head of Finance and Accounts who is responsible for releasing funds for the purchase of raw materials.

Those people co0operate with the marketing department. This is because price of the raw materials may affect the price at which products are marketed.

This study involves an analysis of the manual system and the design of a new computer based system.

1.1 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

A lot of problems have been encountered in the existing manual system of bill of material processing system. The particular raw materials used in a product and the quantity used cannot be traced because of the following:-

1. Inefficient processing and storage system for bill of materials information.

2. Wrong transcriptions and mutilations by accident or on purpose. The information is very insecure and can be accessed by wrong persons.

3. Use of filling cabinets makes retrieval of information very difficult. Also the filling cabinets are prone to termites and rats.

4. Management decisions are often based on incomplete, incomprehensive, incorrect and unreliable information and as such planning and other management activities are affected.

5. Duplication of tasks will be eliminated so that the staff will gear their talents towards more challenging and innovative tasks.

1.2 AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

The purpose of this study is to eliminate the problems that occur to improper billing of materials.

The steps involved are:-

1. To produce an inventory of all the raw materials used in Nigeria.

2. To critically examine the present trends in the billing system of the companies.

3. To identify the causes and sources of the problems encountered in the billing of materials.

4. To identify the effects of these problems and offer suggestions on how to solve them.

5. To serve as a reference to other researchers in this and other related fields of study.

1.3 PURPOSE OF STUDY

The objective of this project is to design a computer-base bill of materials processing system.

An in-depth analysis of the existing system is necessary so as to identify the problems and to justify the development of the new system.

The new system aims at access and retrieval to authorized person, security and control against abuse. Efficiency and effectiveness will be enhanced. Timely accurate and up – to – date reports will be generated.

Most importantly, the staff will be free from boring and repetitive chores from which they drive no job satisfaction. They can then redirect their effort to more challenging and creative task. They will not be made redundant by the advent of a computer – based system.