Logistics Management Practices and Supply Chain Performance of Manufacturing Firms in Nairobi County

Abstract

This study embraced descriptive plan and mainly grounded on purposes of determining the extent to which logistics management practices ought to be applied amid value adding firms in Nairobi county, secondly to ascertain the affiliation between study variables and supply chain performance of manufacturing firms within Nairobi county as well as the challenges which prevent the said firms from fully embracing supply chain practices as part of their daily operations. Due to the higher no of manufacturing firms in Nairobi, the researcher decided to sample population to arrive at 80 firms which was used for the study. The researcher distributed 80 questionnaires to the sampled firms and each firm was issued with one questionnaire to provide the data sought by the researcher. After data collection process was complete, researcher found out that out of the possible 80 respondents, he managed to get 46 questionnaires correctly filled and was therefore used for analysis in this study. Researcher used Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) to analyze data and the findings of the study presented through use of descriptive statistics to enable the beneficiaries easily interpret the findings. This was through use measures of central tendency and dispersion such as frequency tables, means and standard deviations to aid in interpretation and understanding. The discoveries from the study shown logistics management practices to have been embraced to a great extent by production firms within Nairobi county with order processing management, warehousing and inventory management respectively being the utmost effected with utmost means hence it was concluded that they need to be fully embraced to realize the benefits of logistics management practices. On the connection between independent and dependent variables, the outcomes of the study pointed out positive connections between logistics management practices and supply chain performance hence it was recommended that such firms entrusted with value addition of raw materials should strive further to embrace said practices for their own benefit such as reducing cost of production, enhancing flexibility and effectiveness as well as remaining competitive in the current turbulent environment. The study further found that manufacturing firms face numerous barriers as they try to embrace study variables to moderate extent. The most faced challenge was greater cost of embracement as well as lack of support and assurance from management and board members. The research concluded that value adding firms within Nairobi county need to embrace logistics management practices and ensure that top management support their strategic plans to ensure sufficient funds are allocated for implementation of logistics management practices. There is also need to train and familiarize employees at their respective firms to conceptualize the benefits associated with logistics management practices.