ROLE OF STRATEGIC INVENTORY MANAGEMENT ON PERFORMANCE OF MANUFACTURING FIRMS IN KENYA: A CASE OF DIVERSEY EASTERN AND CENTRAL AFRICA LIMITED
Kelvin Mwangi Kairu - Masters Student, Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, Kenya
ABSTRACT
Manufacturing firms face myriad of problems including: poor inventory control, poor strategies in order fulfillment, reduced consumer effective demand due to poor forecasting and lack of proper Information Communication Technology (ICT) application systems leading to poor performance. The purpose of the study was to assess the role of strategic inventory management on performance of manufacturing firms in Kenya. The study focused on 155 employees in the supply chain department at Diversey Eastern and Central Africa (DECAL). The target population was 105 employees from the various sections in the supply chain department who are directly involved in managing inventories in the organization. The sampling frame was the Human Resource register at DECAL. The population sample was 51 respondents and stratified sampling technique was used since the population from which the sample is drawn does not constitute a homogenous group. Structured questionnaires containing both open ended and closed ended questions were used to collect primary data. 48 questionnaires were filled and returned for analysis. The study concluded that; inventory control, order fulfillment, demand management and ICT application had a positive influence on performance of manufacturing firms in Kenya. Based on the findings, the study recommended that the management of manufacturing firms need to keep their inventory control strategies updated , there is need for the management to adopt order fulfillment strategies such as; make-to-order, assemble-to-order and engineer-to-order in there operations, to effectively manage demand, management has to adopt a good demand management process that can enable the organization to be more proactive to anticipated demand and more reactive to unanticipated demand and the study also recommended that the management adopts appropriate ICT application systems that allow manufacturing firms to gain control over their supply chains by employing inventory control systems that ensure smooth operations.
