Supply chain risk management practices among telecommunications equipment vendors in kenya: a case study of nokia kenya
Abstract
An emerging high priority issue for supply chain executives to address is how to enhance
operations to deal with supply chain disruption risks. Many companies are now finding that
a major disruption to the supply chain can have a lasting impact on the financial picture,
not to mention shareholder value. To address the emerging need for supply chain risk
management, the research looks into some of the practices for enhancing operational
resiliency and responsiveness to supply chain disruptions. The study, specifically, sought
to identify the main Supply Chain Risks faced by Nokia Kenya, establish SCRM practices
employed by Nokia Kenya and to determine the barriers to adopting SCRM practices by
Nokia Kenya. A case study design which is an in-depth study of a particular research was
adopted for this research so as to effectively realize the objectives of the study. The
population included all the staff departments within supply chain management in Nokia
Kenya. Research data was collected through a structured questionnaire, which was
administered by use of “drop and pick up later” method. The data collected was analyzed
using descriptive statistics. The statistical measure like frequency distributions,
percentages and central tendency such as mean were used in this study. The study found
that supply chain risks faced by Nokia include currency fluctuations, quality, taxes,
customs, and other regulations, regulatory approvals as indicated and physical theft. The
study also found that Nokia was using supply chain risk management tools like master data
management tools, sourcing tools, operations planning tool, spend management analysis
tool, sales tools and inventory optimization tool. The study further found that barriers to
implementing supply chain risk management practices include concerns of increased costs,
poor communication across supply chain and lack of adequate resources to implement
SCRM practices. The study recommends that the managements of the telecommunication
vendors should keep on doing regular risk assessments in their supply chains as a way of
averting adverse effects of uncertainty. The firms can also benchmark themselves against
the best players in the world as a way of improving their supply chain risk management
practices. The study also recommends that Nokia as well as other organizations should
adopt an information system that can allow information exchange across the supply chain.
This will help the partners in the supply chain to make key decisions on the production of
products. In addition, the study recommends that Nokia should increase its financial budget
for Kenya and employ more staff so as to enhance the implementation of supply chain risk
management practices.