| dc.description.abstract | The tea industry is the leading foreign exchange earner in Kenya. It is therefore important
that quality systems are put in place throughout the tea value chain to secure customer
confidence.
The primary aim of this study was to determine factors affecting
the
implementation of quality systems in tea handling warehouses in Mombasa County.
The
study had three objectives.
The first was to establish the extent to which quality systems
have been implemented by tea handling warehouses in Mombasa County. The second was
to determine the factors that affect quality systems implementation within the context,
while the third objective was to determine the benefits of implementing quality systems by
the sector.
This
was a census study of 29
tea handling warehouse
sites.
Descriptive
research
design
was
used.
The theoretical
framework
was on systems and customer satisfaction
theories.
The
response rate
was
82.8 %.
Data
was gathered exclusively from the
questionnaire.
The
study
relied on
primary data that was
collected using a structured
questionnaire that was
administered using drop and pick method.
Quantitative data on the
range of factors affecting quality systems implementation was
analyzed using descriptive
statistics such as distribution tables, frequencies and
percentages.
On
the first objective,
study concluded that the tea handling warehouses have implemented quality systems with
up to 83.33 % of the
warehouses found
to
have
implemented quality systems and were duly
certified by the respective certification bodies.
Factors affecting the implementation of
quality systems were studied in four aspects; top management commitment, people
involvement and training, PRPs and infrastructure, and system measurement and
continuous improvement.
The
findings were
that all the four factors were paramount in the
successful implementation of any quality system.
The study also confirmed the last
objective.
The
implementation
of quality systems
comes with a number of benefits such as
improved customer confidence, prevention of food
contamination,
compliance with
legislation, promoting company’s
image, motivating employees, reduction of
operating
costs
and reducing product defects.
The study recommended that tea handling warehouses
should continue implementing quality systems more especially using the
HACCP
preventive approach
being a food handling sector. More research can focus on
other
sectors,
integrating systems
and aligning warehouse design
and layout to the control and
management of food safety
hazards | en_US |
