EFFECT OF SUPPLIER EVALUATIONS ON PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT AMONG CONSTRUCTION COMPANIES LISTED IN THE NAIROBI SECURITIES EXCHANGE
Joyce Mbugua - Masters of Science in Procurement and Logistics, Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, Kenya
Dr. Gladys Rotich - Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, Kenya
ABSTRACT
Evaluating suppliers can be challenging, costly, inefficient, and inconsistent. From an analytics perspective, many approaches are inadequate and unable to provide the insight needed to drive better decision making and performance improvement. They tend to provide after-the fact results rather than identifying root causes of performance issues, without which, improvements are difficult to drive. Understanding supplier performance can both prevent problems and facilitate performance improvement. The purpose of this study was to establish the effect of supplier evaluations on product development of construction companies listed in the Nairobi Securities Exchange. The study adopted a descriptive design. The population of study was 172 employees comprising of senior managers, middle level managers and support staff working in the construction companies listed in the Nairobi Securities Exchange. This research study used a stratified random sampling method to select 30% of the targeted respondents giving a sample size of 69 respondents. The study used primary data for this study and collected using questionnaires. The quantitative data in this research was analyzed by descriptive statistics using statistical package for social sciences (SPPS V 21.0) while content analysis was used for the qualitative data. In addition, a multivariate regression model was applied to determine the relative importance of each of the four variables with respect to product development. The study found out that product assessment affected product development to a very great extent mainly through quality level/ quality management policy, environmental, ethics and occupational health and safety policies. Capacity assessment affected product development to a very great extent through aspects such as financial capability and technical capability. The study found out that information assessment affected product development to a great extent. The study concluded that information assessment had the greatest effect on the product developments among construction companies, followed by product assessment, then capacity assessment while delivery assessment had the least effect to the product developments among construction companies. The study recommends that checks and measures be put in place through the Quality assurance department to ensure that product quality in terms of density and other specifications are upheld before supply. The study also recommended that companies should clearly indicate the criteria they use to determine the capacity of the suppliers whether its financial capability, technical capability, human resource or process control capability as this helps the company know whether the supplier can guarantee sustained continuity of supply.
