Lean supply chain management practices and organizational performance of large scale manufacturing firms in Kenya

Abstract

The lean supply chain practices have been revolutionized, leading to a number of success stories from various companies. These companies join a growing number of businesses in a myriad of industries that have revamped their operations to be leaner and more efficient, all to a variety of benefits and to overcome the critical barriers in the lean supply chain practices 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 practices in the manufacturing sector in Kenya. The study adopted a survey study design and targeted large scale manufacturing companies in Kenya. A questionnaire was used as the research instrument and data was collected and analyzed. Large scale Manufacturing firms in Kenya that were surveyed have exhibited some evidence of adoption of lean supply chain practices. The study shows that the main reasons for adoption for these practices were 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 improving the relationship they have with their suppliers. As well as adoption of flexible lean supply chain practices, this will help to cope with the constant changing business environment.