An Assessment of Village Type Pottery Industry

Abstract

A village type pottery industry was operating in a village of Talibon, in northern Bohol, Philippines which existed for quite sometime and was observed to be very slow in its improvement in terms of number and design of products, number of workers and the facilities remained obsolete. This study was conducted to determine the features of the village type pottery industry in terms of the beginnings of industry, the management structure, how pottery craft was learned, the process followed to produce a product, the source of raw materials, facilities and equipment used, designs of the products, the customers and the workers of the pottery. This was also conducted to determine the contribution of the industry to the local community. Further, the study was conducted to identify the level of satisfaction of the customers in terms of the product quality, quantity and timeliness of delivery of the product and to recognize the problems met by the industry. This study used descriptive survey method utilizing questionnaire, interview and actual observation. The result shows that this industry started in 1970s by the great grandparents of the present proprietors, the products were only limited to cooking pots, flower pots, and stove. Presently, this industry is managed by a couple, the husband as the manager and the wife as assistant manager. It has 5 workers in the production area, 3 males and 2 females who are daughters of the couple managing it. There were additional 2 workers, one helped in getting raw materials and the other one in selling the product. The result also shows that the raw materials were taken from the area near the pottery. It can be noted that improvised facilities and equipment were used in this pottery industry. Their customers were composed of walk-in customers and wholesalers. The result in the level of satisfaction on the products in terms of quantity, quality and timeliness in product delivery, revealed that the customers were Satisfied and Very Satisfied. The top three problems experienced were lack of capital, obsolete technology and lack of diversification. These results challenged the state university in Bohol and gave it the opportunity to use their capacity of helping this pottery industry in those aforementioned problems.