Lean supply Cchain management in manufacturing firms in Kenya

Abstract

Wholesalers, manufacturers, retailers, distributors, suppliers, third party service providers (3PLs) and every party involved in the supply chain are under pressure to reduce and balance their costs, time and inventories in order to continue to be profitable while still meeting their customers' demands. The best way for them to achieve this is to implement lean supply chain management (Borac, Milovanovic & Andjelkovic, 2010). The objective of the study was to explore lean supply chain management in the manufacturing sector in Kenya. The study adopted a survey study design and targeted manufacturing companies in Kenya. A questionnaire was used as the research instrument and data was collected and analyzed. Manufacturing firms in Kenya that were surveyed have exhibited some evidence of adoption of lean supply chain practices. The study findings indicate that the most prevalent practices adopted are preventative maintenance and reduction in the preliminary finishing time. The study shows that the main reasons for adoption for these practices was to reduce cost profitability and long term survival of the firm. The study recommends that as much as the survey provided information on lean supply chain practices among manufacturing firms in Kenya, the management of the of these firms needs to invest more on skill and knowledge acquisition on the management of the lean supply chain. They also need to bench mark themselves with world class organization practicing lean supply. The organization should also try improve the relationship they have with their suppliers.