Lean Manufacturing Practices and Performance of Tea Processing Firms in Kisii, Kenya

Abstract

Lean manufacturing was invented with an aim of improving competitiveness and market share for the manufacturing firms. Tea is one of the major cash crops in Kenya and also in Kisii County and before it reaches in the market for consumption it should be processed. Therefore the study was carried out to find out the relationship between lean manufacturing practices and firm performance. Hence the research aimed at answering the following research questions; what is the relationship between lean manufacturing practices and the way tea processing factories perform in Kisii County? And to what extent is the relationship between lean manufacturing practices and performance of tea processing firms in Kisii, Kenya? The study also aimed at meeting the following objectives; to establish the relationship between lean manufacturing practices and performance of tea processing firms in Kisii, Kenya and to establish the extent of the relationship between LM practices and the way tea processing firms perform in kisii county Kenya. Equally the findings of this study was useful in the following aspects; provided both corporate and operations decisions maker with a basis of making informed strategy and investment decisions in the light of increasing global competition, to the operations management profession, the findings from the study will help them to identify opportunities derived from implementing Lean Manufacturing practices that enhance acquisition of capabilities that could result in competitive advantage, the study will also have a practical significance to the Manufacturers which help them to enhance the improvement of costing and pricing strategies and the outcomes of this study will give adequate knowledge to scholars and researchers who may be interested in studying lean manufacturing practices and firm performance. The study adopted census survey research design where both cross sectional and longitudinal research design were adopted. The target population was all the 12 tea factories company limited companies in Kisii region. Descriptive analysis was used to analyze the collected data and this was done using SPSS and regression model was employed to determine link between lean manufacturing practices and performance of tea manufacturing firms in Kisii Kenya and also the extent of the relation. The findings of the study indicated automation was the most used lean manufacturing practices in all the tea processing firms in Kisii region together other practices like kaizen, total productive maintenance, and standardized work and bottleneck analysis. High electricity bills were the major challenge in implementing lean manufacturing practices among others. There was a strong relationship between lean manufacturing practices and performance of tea processing firms in Kisii Kenya.