Abstract:
Companies involved in a supply chain must coordinate their operations through adoption
of inbound logistics strategies so as to enhance business performance. Kenya Tea
Development Agencies factories have adopted inbound logistics strategies as well as
quality management system with the aim of turning around their performance and hence
reduce on operational costs leading to sustainable procurement performance. However,
despite this, the factories still experience wide variations in earnings. The drop in
earnings and high variation in tea bonuses among factories has been blamed on
operational cost at the factory and the quality management system being adopted by these
factories. This points out that although inbound logistics have been adopted, they have
not resulted in sustainable procurement performance. The purpose of this study was to
establish the relationship between inbound logistic strategies, quality management system
and sustainable procurement performance among Kenya Tea Development Agencies
Factories in Kenya. The study specifically sought to determine the relationship between
suppliers sourcing strategy, transportation strategy, material handling strategy, reverse
logistic strategy and sustainable procurement performance and determine the moderating
effect of quality management system on the relationship between inbound logistics
strategies and sustainable procurement performance among Kenya Tea Development
Agencies factories. The study was anchored on the resource-based view theory, total
quality management, strategic choice theory and stake holder theory. The study adopted
correlation research design. The target population of the study was 188 staff drawn from
the 16 Kenya Tea Development Agencies managed Region 5 factories. A census method
was used to collect data from the production managers, information communication
technology managers, procurement Managers, leaf base managers, factory unit managers
and directors using a structured questionnaire. The validity of the instrument was
determined through professional judgment and reliability was determined using
Cronbach's alpha coefficient where the alpha coefficient of 0.865 was actualized. The
findings revealed that suppliers sourcing strategies had a positive significant correlation
with sustainable procurement performance (r = 0.545, p < 0.05); transportation strategy (r
= 0.352, p < 0.05); material handling strategy (r = 0.078, p > 0.05); reverse logistic
strategy (r = 0.254, p < 0.05); and that quality management system (r = 0.526, p < 0.05).
The results showed that R Square changed from 30.8% to 41.2% as a result of the
moderator effect of quality management system and that changed was significant. The
study recommends that factories sourcing strategies need to aligned to organizational
sustainability goal, develop procedures and policies on material handling with
sustainability goal well outlined, manage return flows in accordance with organizational
objectives so as to prevent wastage and minimize environmental costs in an ethical and
ecological way as well as employ quality management system by following total quality
concept's guiding principles in the management and purchase of material resources. The
study may contribute to the existing body of knowledge on inbound logistic strategies
and sustainable procurement performance by creating new knowledge based on the
research findings. The results of this study may advice on policy formulation in relation
to inbound logistics strategies and sustainable procurement performance. Other
researchers may benefit from the literature on inbound logistics and sustainable
procurement performance since the current study provided a basis for further studies.