dc.description.abstract | To stay competitive, companies have strived to achieve greater coordination and
collaboration among supply chain partners in an approach called supply chain
integration. B.A.T (Kenya) has undergone tremendous changes in the past in an
effort to leverage its presence globally and also benefit from synergies within its
factories. Some of the changes included initiating and implementing Above
Market Business Model in Africa in this Model SCM is a critical performance
indicator. Therefore the overall objective of this study was to examine
information technology and supply chain integration strategy at British American
Tobacco Kenya Limited. This study will be important to the manufacturing
industry players in Kenya as it will enable them to assess their supply chain
management strategies and realign them with the emerging IT trends to be able to
benefit and identify areas of opportunities especially those relating to, cost
reduction and efficiencies within SC. Chapter two looked at theories around
SCM, detailing past studies on supply chain management strategy, IT and
integration in the manufacturing sector.
The research design adopted the case study approach as its research design, in
this case British American Tobacco Ltd. Primary data was collected by
conducting focused interviews with middle level management from Supply
Chain, Finance, IT and Manufacturing who are currently directly involved in
Supply Chain process. While the primary data was analysed qualitatively,
secondary data provided additional information that was not practically to obtain
from the primary sources due to the time frame within which this research has to
be carried out. Content analysis was used to analyse the data since the study seeks
to solicit for data that is qualitative in nature. The findings support the RBV
theory which attributes improvement in firm performance to valuable resources
or resource bundles. From the RBV, one lens through which to look at IT value
creation is “an indirect role for IT in firm performance.
The basic logic is that IT affects other resources or processes which, in turn, lead
to competitive advantage this is why British American Tobacco Kenya Ltd
investment in ICT is 56% and above. From the responses the study was able to
document at least 13 technologies used by British American Tobacco Kenya Ltd
under supply management information system. In conclusion the adoption of ICT
at British American Tobacco Kenya Ltd has increased the information processing
capabilities of suppliers, thereby enabling or supporting greater relationship in
addition to reducing uncertainty. ICT has enabled British American Tobacco
Kenya Ltd to more quickly institute EDI information programs with her
customers. One of the recommendations is that BAT ltd should employ industry
standards – this will be towards common methods of communicating business
transactions and data sharing reduces cost for the entire supply chain. Just as we
have standardized logistics such as pallet size, truck dimensions from a supply
chain perspective, automating business transactions will also drive down costs of
the manufacturer/supplier relationship. | en |