干旱区生态环境知识资源中心

The machine tools are known to be the ubiquitous instruments of modern manufacturing and they formed the oases for industrial development. Incredible dynamism in machine tools development requires an assessment based on 'utilization level, and determines the scope of job for economic choice of machine tools. The factors that were considered paramount for the assessment included labour versatility (age, sex, experience); maintainability (number of breakdown and preventive maintenance stoppage, maintenance complexity, available machine hours); functionality (frequency of use, demand rate); and level of technological innovation/acquisition as related to some factors included rate of turnover, customer satisfaction, reduction in price and raw materials. Forty structured questionnaires were administered among the selected machine tools industries in Nigeria to collect data on the afore-stated factors, among others. Descriptive statistical method based on percentages was utilized for evaluating the performances of the identified factors. Maintainability performance was determined using maintenance ratio based on percentage stoppage of identified machine tools including lathe, milling and drilling machines. The results obtained showed that lack of experience and retraining of personnel had militated against effective utilization of machine tools in Nigerian industries. Speedy pace of technological innovation/acquisition in the machine tools industries had been hindered by goods importation and high cost of fuel.