| dc.description.abstract | Lean Supply Chain Management focuses on elimination of waste. Lean supply chain concentrates on total value stream transformation. In the implementation of Lean, she suggests that there is a key need to focus on supplier relationships by agreeing on long-term contracts and settling on pricing. With the knowledge that the customers have, business environment today is constantly changing and therefore needs are increasing. The need for flexibility has led many manufacturers in Kenya to shed their plants and rely on domestic and international contract manufacturers or to move production to low-cost countries, making the supply chain long and more complex. Some of the many firms in Kenya impacted today due to product line withdrawals include Colgate, Johnson and Johnson, Procter and Gamble and Palmolive. This study sought to establish the relationship between supply chain performance and lean management implementation in FMCG’s in Kenya. In this study, descriptive survey research design was used. The targeted population consisted of FMCG firms in Kenya as listed in the Kenya Association of Manufactures with 85 companies classified under Pharmaceuticals, Food, Beverage and tobacco located around Nairobi and its environs for ease of access. The questionnaires were either dropped physically at the firm’s location or sent on e-mail to various respondents for completion. Questionnaires and structured interviews were used with the intent of generalizing from a sample of population. Data was analysed using both qualitative and quantitative data analysis. This data was presented in form of tables, bar graphs and pie charts to reflect the correlation between Lean Management Practices and Supply Chain Performance. Qualitative data was analyzed according to themes and was converted into frequencies and percentages where necessary and also reported as a narrative. The study found that the firms improved performance can be attributed to their application of the lean management practices which eliminate waste across an extended Supply Chain as well shortening the time between the customer order and the shipment to the customers. This increases the customer satisfaction and hence improves performance of the firms. The study revealed that there have been delays in the implementation of lean management practices since there many factors and changes are involved in successful implementation. These factors can either be economic, corporate culture, or functional factors which render the implementation process difficult. The study recommends that firms need to adopt the lean management practices since they make a firm’s overall business processes more efficient and reduces wastage which comes with overproduction, over-processing, defects, high inventory, unnecessary transportation or even lost waiting time. There is need for firms to apply lean collaboration which will ensure reduction of suppliers. This implies that the firm will enjoy economies of scale which will increase profitability of the firm | en_US |
