Production System Design and Operational Performance of Steel Manufacturers in Kenya

Abstract

The current competitive world market has positioned many companies under immense pressure to withstand the completion. The focus on the manufacturing or production system design performance has become more important. Alongside the growing competition in the industrial sector, it is apparent that improved levels of, effectiveness, output, quality and efficiency will only be attained by advancing new and enhanced production or manufacturing system design. The goals of this study were to find out the production system design adopted by steel manufacturers in Kenya and the impact these production system designs have on operational performance of steel manufacturers in Kenya. The population in this study comprised of all steel manufacturing firms in Kenya. Particularly, the respondents were the Maintenance Managers, Production Managers, and Plant/Operations Managers. Primary data was used to collect the data using questionnaires. The researcher has made use of descriptive and correlation and regression analysis to present the result in tables and figures. Process Oriented Production System Design, Industry Production System and Robust Production System Design were established to be the main systems adopted by the companies. The study also establishes that the product system designs have impacts on the leadership, quality, customer satisfaction and the supply chain management. The study thus concludes a positive relation between product system designs and the operational performance, which is supported by a coefficient of correlation of 0.784. The study thus recommends that the management of the companies to not only adopt any product design system, but also choose the design that works the best for that particular organization.