dc.description.abstract | The competitive business environment has gone through many evolutions. Great
consumer demand for customization has led to a short product life cycles thus
creating the need for flexibility strategy. The nature of these changes has necessitated
firms to have capabilities beyond flexibility described as agility.Agility capabilities
are considered as main features of today’s forward-looking organizations. Those
organizations which possess such characteristics would be able to achieve competitive
advantage and gain an edge over competitors. Over the last decade, Kenya Ports
Authority faced numerous operational challenges such as port congestion, old and
unreliable cargo handling equipment, slow and manual processing of documentations,
poor infrastructure, constrained berths and yards and high rate of cargo pilferage. The
challenges contributed to low productivity thus there was urgent need for Kenya Ports
Authority to enhance efficiency and operational productivity. The study sought to
demistify the effect of agility practices on Port productivity. A longitudinal research
design was used for the research. Secondary data was used and detailed information
on dependent and independent variables were obtained from Kenya Ports Authority.
Productivity measures namely ship turnaround time, ship waiting time, berth
occupancy, total cargo throughput, cargo dwell time and total number of twenty feet
equivalent units handled and agility measures namely reliability, quality and speed
were tested for the period under study and analysed using the SPSS software. The
study revealed that there was a significant positive relationship between the
productivity indicators (that is, ship turn-around time, cargo dwell time, total cargo
throughput and the number of twenty feet equivalent units handled except waiting
time and berth occupancy). The study further concluded that relationship between
agility practices and port productivity existed at high significance level. It
recommends that Kenya Ports Authority should adopt full implementation of agile
practices to experience improved productivity. By adopting agility practices, KPA can
provide transport solutions by developing the capability to effectively control
transport chain through extra-flexibility and capacity utilization.The study finally
recommends that more research be done not only at KPA but also in other service
firm to clearly establish the relationship of the study variables and the benefits. | en_US |