Lean Supply Chain Management Practices and Operational Performance of the Manufacturing Firms in Kenya

Abstract

Implementation of lean supply chain management practices has become a vital strategy for gaining competitive edge among competitors because competition amongst organizations have risen to high level that organizations fail to develop ways of survival either fail to perform or are eliminated out of business. This study tested five lean management practices namely Demand Management, Waste management, Cross enterprise collaboration, cultural practices and standardization against selected operational performance measures in the manufacturing firms in Kenya. The study adopted a survey method of data collection, collecting data from 104 manufacturing firms in Kenya through stratified sampling. The data was then analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. The study used both Pearson correlation to test the relationship and regression to analyze the data using SPSS program. It was concluded from the study that lean supply chain management practices have very strong correlation with manufacturing firms in Kenya with demand management having the highest level of effect. Therefore in order to improve firms‟ performance, organizations should adopt lean supply chain management practices.