Transportation Management in Kenyan Organizations: Impact on Supply Chain

How Would The Supply Chain Of Kenyan Organizations Be Impacted By The Implementation Of a Transportation Management System?

Transportation strategy is one of the most important and primary is logistic function within a supply chain. This procedure runs from the suppliers to the customers and stores (Kariuki and Rotich 2019). The transportation strategy mostly involves the movement of products or a service along with the cost of transportation through 5 particular issues of effective supply chain. The probability of led to issues of movement and integration of information along the supply chain, careers and customers are mostly found throughout the transportation procedure. This is why there lies and importance of developing a transportation strategy so that the supply chain management can be effectively carrying out the procedure of reaching the customers or stores through the suppliers (Githinji and Were 2018). It incorporates a good supply chain and it is a way for responding to the Dynamics of business, the needs of the suppliers, customers and also the business operation. It is for this research that a developing country like Kenya and their ability of developing a strategy for organisations to make sure that a transportation strategy is implemented would be discussed in details. The present research approach over the understanding of transportation management in supply chain is going to be conducted as there has not been much strategies and software developed in Kenya for adopting and gaining a competitive advantage for satisfying the customer and consumer needs, the operational needs of the organisation and even for the needs of the career.

Understanding the phases of transportation strategy implementation depends on the different factors of issue identification during the procedure (Jirma and Guyo 2017). Kenya is a country which is developing and it is not found that the transportation phase in supply chain has been provided with strategy or automated. There are some disparate objectives and aims of the research that would be described as follows. With this understanding it would be easier to understand the effectivity and issues that Kenya and its organisation faces for managing the transportation process in supply chain. The policies and procedure that the Kenyan organizations followed would be assessed and described to achieve the major purpose of the research process.

Research aims: The aim of this research is to understand and investigate the transportation management in supply chain procedure in Kenyan organizations.

Research Aims and Objectives

Research objectives: The objectives of the research are to be developed with the help of the aims that are trying to be achieved with this research. This can be listed as follows:

To find out the strategies that Kenyan organizations are using for transportation management in supply chain.

To find out the issues in the organisations during the performance off the transportation activities in supply chain.

To find out the association of the transportation management in supply chain with it impact on the productivity of the organisation.

The literature review would be conducted to find out the research that have been conducted by different authors and researchers with their Academic journals presented. All the journals would be listed as per their fulfilment and alignment to the research topic on the basis of which they would be analysed and review to find out the information that would sufficiently fulfil the objectives of the research paper. According to the papers found, following would be the review of literature that has described any issues that the Kenyan organizations right now facing because of the transportation strategy that they have utilised in their supply chain management system.

According to the author Giathi and Karanja (2016), with huge rise in the growth of e-commerce, there has been Urbanization of the markets and the utility of Technology within the sectors of retail marketing and other industries where logistics and supply chain management is a key factor has gone through a vast change. The utilisation of Big Data Analytics and the digitalization has brought about so much change that service Expectations for the customers at changing every now and then. Market is not constant and so is the requirements of the customers. The author Kiriba and Ishmail (2017), also focuses on the fact that the Expectations of the customers are changing at an exponential level and so are the growth in the emerging markets. The developed countries are implementing the changes in the technological world to every business operation which is making them attend all the advantages of the advanced technology for conducting all the business operations including the transportation in supply chain (Nehemiah 2017). The different measuring schemes for analysing the impact and effectivity of the transportation management system are also getting automated. This is why utilising a strategy and assessing their effectivity to the organisation for providing the best services to the customers is also easy to perform.

Literature Review

According to another author Maata and Ombui (2018), Kenya country that is not a developed but a developing one. The conduction of a strategy implementation plan in in the organisations established in Kenya or any implementation of automated techniques as a strategy would be difficult because of the infrastructure and capital displacements. Musau et al. (2018), presented statement in the research that supply chain management strategies where implemented by small and medium enterprises in India and they have seen that the outcomes of all the strategy implementation has provided critical success factor to the competitiveness of the organisation. The primary study was based on the assessment of effectivity for the process strategies which would bring about competitiveness to the small and medium enterprises in Kenya (Kanja and Mwangangi 2017). The research also focused on the evaluation of effective transportation strategies to develop competitiveness for the small and medium enterprises in Kenya and also for determining the effect on channelling the supply chain management strategy. The author provided a thorough study on the different characteristics of supply chain practices where a positive relationship with the supply chain management strategies was to be added to competitiveness of the organisation (Kipturgo and Okello 2016). For any organisation it was important to maintain its competitiveness in the market which was found to be enhance with the implementation of automated supply chain management systems in assessing the transportation management facility. There are several sectors where transportation management was amalgamated with the strategies to automate the entire transportation phase (Mbugua and Namada 2019). It included the segment where shipment priority where differentiated from one another. It depended on the needs of the customers, product and suppliers and even the time of the year and other factors that could impact on the urgency of the transportation movement.

In addition to this, the customer requirement was also taken into account for timely movement of the shipment and proper authenticated allotment of the transportation service. Transportation is one of the important factors in supply chain management since the teaching of a product or service to the customer is defined by this particular function. It bridges the gap between the products and services open organisation and the customers (Mutisya and Kinoti 2017). Measuring the strategy implementation plan according to the fulfillment of the customer needs where also automated for comparing the performance with agreed standard. This provided different angle of improvement to the organisation and its transportation management. All these factors where theoretical for Kenya as there was a problem of implementing these factors for a developing country because of the resource and capital dissatisfaction (Ali 2018). Even after understanding the added value to the business by providing accurate products and services to the customers to strategy implementation in the transportation phase in supply chain management, the businesses could not implement as much as it would have for gaining competitiveness in the market.

The methodology that is utilised in this purpose would describe the process for gathering information for this particular research. It will have the utilisation of the information gathered throughout the secondary research so that Kenya and its organisations applying strategy for transportation management can be assessed to find out the degrees of profit and revenue earned throughout the supply chain (Gogo et al. 2017). The gathering of information and data collection would be conducted by qualitative and quantitative data collection. The phase would first begin with qualitative data collection through the secondary sources. The secondary sources would mostly be the journal articles that have been reviewed for literature and information collection.

The collection of information about form the secondary data which would then follow through the next stages of feasible conduction of the research. The information from the literature review would form the base for further Collection of data through primary quantitative method. With this, the different employees working in Kenyan organisations would be asked for a wilful responding of a set of questionnaires which would be derived from the findings of the literature review aligning it with the objectives of the research. They would be asked to wilfully provide their insights for making the researchers gather information about the opinions of them about transportation facility management in supply chain. This gathered information from both qualitative and quantitative factors would then be gathered together for further analysis.

Sampling method: The employees In Kenyan organisations that would be selected for this purpose would be related to the supply chain management system. This means that the workers who are associated with the supply chain management system and its functionalities and operations would be selected for the survey purpose. The most employees belonging to the retail organisations implementing the most and supply chain management would be used for conducting the survey.

Sample size: About 100 search employee should be selected to perform and present their responses for the survey. These people would be contacted with the help of emails provided to them as for their information provided in the organisation website.

It is ideally found that there are several limitations to the research procedure that can be listed as follows:

There might be requirement of taking the information from the employees working in the Organisation established in Kenya, but visiting the country would be extremely difficult and there would be no financial sponsor for the procedure. In this case there is a likely chance of sending an online questionnaire survey form for them to fill up.

Another implication in this particular research paper if the economic structure of Kenya and its technological advancement. Since it is a known factor that Kenya is a developing organisation, the availability of Internet in the country is a questionable factor. For this particular purpose, even if the online survey forms are provided to the Employees, there might be chances that not everybody would have access to the internet having difficulties in collecting data (Solomon 2018).

The time limit for the study is extremely constructed for which there has to be a developed schedule, which has to be maintained appropriately there might be chances of having and over budget for conducting the research process.

References

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Giathi, k.n. And Karanja, k., 2016. Role Of Fleet Management On Supply Chain Performance In Logistics Firms Based In Nairobi Industrial Area, Kenya. Journal Of Management, 3(3), p.24.

Githinji, r.m. And Were, s., 2018. Challenges Of Implementing e-Procurement In The Ministry Of Transport, Infrastructure, Housing And Urban Development In Nairobi, Kenya. Journal Of Procurement & Supply Chain, 2(1), Pp.1-13.

Gogo, e.o., Opiyo, a.m., Ulrichs, c. And Huyskens-Keil, s., 2017. Nutritional And Economic Postharvest Loss Analysis Of African Indigenous Leafy Vegetables Along The Supply Chain In Kenya. Postharvest Biology And Technology, 130, Pp.39-47.

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Kanja, d.w. And Mwangangi, p., 2017. Influence Of Logistics Management On Supply Chain Performance In Retail Chain Stores In Kenya: a Case Of Nakumatt Holdings Limted. The Strategic Journal Of Business & Change Management, 4, Pp.425-444.

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Kiriba, t.w. And Ishmail, n., 2017. Influence Of Distribution Network Systems On Supply Chain Performance In Print Media Industry In Kenya: a Case Of The Nation Media Group. International Journal Of Supply Chain Management, 2(2), Pp.60-75.

Maata, s.w. And Ombui, k., 2018. Role Of Third-Party Logistics Services On Supply Chain Performance In Distribution Sector In Kenya: a Case Of Bollore Transport & Logistics Kenya Limited. International Journal Of Supply Chain Management, 3(2), Pp.22-43.

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Musau, e.g., Namusonge, g., Makokha, e.n. And Ngeno, j., 2017. The Effect Of Transport Management On Organizational Performance Among Textile Manufacturing Firms In Kenya. International Journal Of Academic Research In Business And Social Sciences, 7(11), Pp.1015-1031.

Mutisya, f.m. And Kinoti, j., 2017. Effect Of Green Supply Chain Practices On Performance Of Large Chemical Manufacturing Firms In Nairobi County Kenya. International Journal Of Supply Chain Management, 2(2), Pp.1-21.

Nehemiah, w., 2017. Supply Chain Management Practices And Operational Performance Of Smes In Nairobi County, Kenya. In Management Challenges In Different Types Of African Firms (Pp. 95-111). Springer, Singapore.

Solomon, c.k., 2018. Logistics Management Practices And Organizationalperformanceof Dairy Firms In Kenya (Doctoral Dissertation, School Of Business, University Of Nairobi).