Factors influencing business process improvement at Nairobi City Water and Sewerage Company in Nairobi County

Abstract

Business process improvement is the holy grail of any company's operations. Many companies that undergo a process improvement programme have found that the application of process improvement techniques has lead to significant improvements in operational areas. The adoption of process improvement techniques has been inspired by the dramatic improvements demonstrated by such techniques as Lean, Value Stream Mapping, Process Mapping, 5S, Six Sigma, Kaizen and DMAIC. In order to be effective and efficient, process improvement approaches need to be closely integrated with strategy and other organizational elements such asculture, top management commitment and staff motivation. Despite these numerous strategies to improve the processes at Nairobi City Water and Sewerage Company, its performance has been wanting. This study therefore sought to determine the extent to which people issues, technology, strategy, management commitment and organizational culture has affected the business process improvement at the company. The purpose of the study was to determine factors effecting business process improvement at Nairobi City Water and Sewerage Company in Nairobi County. A descriptive research design was used this study. The target population of this study was the 119 management staff working at Nairobi Water Company. The study used a census approach. The study used both primary and secondary data. Primary data was obtained through self- administered questionnaires with closed and open-ended questions. Secondary data was collected by use of desk search techniques from published reports and other documents. Descriptive statistics and regression analysis were used to analyze the data. The study findings showed that all the five variables explained 79% of the business process improvement at Nairobi City Water And Sewerage Company. The study found that technology had the greatest effect on the business process improvement at Nairobi City Water And Sewer age Company followed by management commitment, then organizational culture and staff r elated issues in that order while organizational strategy had the least effect. The study found that the education and training provided in Nairobi City Water and Sewerage Company was not evaluated in terms of expectations and impact on the effectiveness and efficiency of the organization. This study recommends that Nairobi City Water and Sewerage Company should fully adopt technology in decision support and databases so as to enhance the business process improvement