Abstract:
Power plant store keeps in stock the items that are of high value and critical to the power
plant operation and maintenance. Useful working life of a power plant varies with the
type of power plant used. Factors for example long working life of the power plant,
uniqueness of the spare parts, dependency on foreign manufacturer for spare parts, rapid
change of technology, fluctuations of the currency rate, long procurement lead time,
bureaucracy in the procurement process etc influence the power plant to keep in stock the
valuable items for long time. The purpose of this research is to identify the factors that
are affecting the performance of local store and their impact on power plant operation and
also to identify the most important areas of storage system that require immediate
improvement. Data were collected using the questionnaire with a sample size of 31. The
respondents were asked to response in four areas of storage system and they were store
facility, record keeping system, staff performance and store security system. Officials of
the power station who are directly or indirectly involved with the operation of the power
plant store as well as operation of the power plant provided their opinion. Data were
analyzed using frequency analysis, reliability test, descriptive analysis, correlation
analysis, regression analysis and chi-square test. Results revealed that the store is
suffering from poor store capacity, poor record keeping system and poor employee
performance. Store security is comparatively better as store security is involved with the
power plant security as a whole. However the store has no alarming system, no security
signs and hitting and air-conditioning system. Regression analyses showed significant
relationships between store performance and three of the five attribute factors. Chi-square analyses also showed significant relationship between store performance and three of the five attribute factors.
