Inbound Logistics Practices And Supply Chain Performance Of Mobile Phone Operators In Kenya

Abstract

The study sought to establish the relationship between inbound logistics and supply chain performance of the mobile phone operators in Kenya. The study looked into inbound logistics practices and Supply chain performance by collecting primary data through use of structured and semi-structured questionnaire. It proofed that there is a relationship between inbound logistics practices and supply chain performance of the mobile phone providers in Kenya. All the four mobile phone firms surveyed have adopted inbound logistics practices of transportation, inventory control and warehousing. The study found out that the importance of any of these inbound logistics activities in either transportation, inventory control or warehousing was not dependent on the mobile phone company under study, and thus the importance of these practices is over emphasized across all the four mobile phone telecommunication companies in Kenya. The study concludes that inbound logistics practices were statistically significant to supply chain performance parameters such as; cost, good or service speed of delivery, supply chain reliability and customer satisfaction. Therefore for a SC to be efficient so must be the inbound logistics. Mobile phone companies in Kenya have therefore no choice but optimize their inbound logistics operations as part of their strategy to gain or retain their competitive advantage. The gains operators realized from implementation of inbound logistics outweighed the challenges faced in implantation of inbound logistics practices. The study only focused on inbound logistics practices and supply chain performance of the mobile phone operators in Kenya, future studies should consider expanding their scope to include outbound logistics as well and to other organizations like the Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) for instance. It will be insightful to see whether similar findings can be realized while using quantitative measures.