Lean and Agile Procurement Strategies and Performance at East Africa Breweries Limited

Abstract

The study objectives were to establish lean and agile procurement activities adopted in East African Breweries and the second objective was of the study to establish the connection that exist between lean and agile procurement and performance at East African Breweries. The study was anchored on three theories that is transaction cost theory, resource dependence theory and the institutional theory. The study was a case study. The target population of this study comprised the staff working in East African Breweries headquarters. The study adopted stratified random sampling to select 20% of the staff in different departments at EABL. The study sample size was 38 team leaders. Both open ended and close ended questionnaire were used as data collection instrument. The study adopted drop and peak method. The data collected was analyzed using SPSS version 22. Descriptive statistics for the quantitative data included frequencies, percentages, mean scores and standard deviation. The relationship between independent variables and dependent variable was established using a multiple regression analysis. The study results were presented using charts and tables. The study found that East African Breweries have greatly implemented supplier relationship, lean suppliers practices, lean product management practices, Just in Time, lean thinking, lean warehousing practices and Kanban Systems with E-Procurement being been implemented in a moderate extent. The study concluded that waste management practices was greatly related to the performance at East Africa breweries limited Kenya, followed by demand management practices then behavioral practices while standardization practices had the least effect on the performance at East Africa breweries limited Kenya. The study recommends the use of standardization, that the key procurement actors should come up with viable ways of managing procurement process and that East Africa Breweries Limited should work on having dependable suppliers whose delivery timetable are practical and within its requirements.