SUPPLY CHAIN ALERTNESS AND PERFORMANCE OF TEA PROCESSING COMPANIES IN MOUNT KENYA REGION

Supply Chain management

The aim of this paper is to assess the influence of supply chain alertness as one of the aspects of supply chain agility on the performance of tea processing companies in Mount Kennya Region, Kenya. The Kenya tea industry dropped from being the largest exporter of black tea products in the world to being the second largest exporter behind China. This is an indication that Kenya faces stiff competition from other exporters of black tea across the world, hence the subject of the study. This study was anchored on the Systems Theory. A cross-sectional research design was used to assess the influence of supply chain alertness on supply chain performance of tea processing firms in Mount Kenya Region. Since the concept of supply chain agility cuts across the main tenets of supply chain, the study targeted the managers in charge of; planning, information management, procurement, inventory management, warehousing, production, distribution, transportation and focus groups. In total, 128 respondents were targeted. A structured questionnaire was the main data collection tool for the study where quantitative data were collected and analyzed through Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 25. Descriptive and inferential statistics were adopted by the study. The findings revealed that supply chain alertness had a significant and positive influence on the supply chain performance of tea processing firms in Mount Kenya Region. The study concluded that as a result of supply chain alertness, lead time and waiting time reduction, quality enhancement and enhanced customer satisfaction were achieved. The study therefore recommended that there is need for the management of the tea processing firms to embrace supply chain alertness as a way of enhancing the effectiveness of the supply chain processes for enhanced performance.

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