| dc.description.abstract | Operations play a major role in the tea industry where the business involves suppliers,
some of who are the business owners and customers. Organizations in the tea industry are
faced with challenges in their quest to deliver their products to consumers while
concurrently ensuring profitability. Thus, they have to tailor their business operations
practices to fit the market. This research aims to see to what extent operations
management practices are being undertaken in the Kenyan tea industry by looking at the
Kenya Tea Development Agency managed factories, studying their supply chain and
their process to determine how they impact on the operational performance of the
factories.
The target population in this study was the 65 Kenya Tea Development Agency managed
factories. Primary data on the project implementation was collected using a
questionnaire. Secondary data was obtained from relevant publications and literature
review from the different organizations. Data was tabulated and analyzed for purpose of
clarity, using SPSS version 20 software. Data was presented using tables, and pie charts
to make them reader friendly and his study conducted a multiple regression analysis.
Multiple regression analysis was used to establish the relationship between the
independent and dependent variables.
The study found that there is a positive significant relationship between supply chain,
lean management, value stream mapping, machine maintenance and operational
performance. However, the study found a negative relationship between constraints and
operational performance of an organization.
The study recommends that factories should be urged to adopt all the practices under
supply chain management, adoption of communication channels enhancement among all
the staff working in various organizations to improve value stream mapping. The study
further, recommends that all factories under KTDA should have a skilled team to handle
issues on machine maintenance and replacement as this will lead to continued production.
In addition, the study recommends that similar studies be done on change management in
other organizations for deeper understanding of the phenomenon under research. | en_US |
