Role of Supply Chain Practices on Performance of Cement Manufacturing Firms in Kenya

The main aim of the study was to determine the role of cost management on the performance of Cement Manufacturing firms, examine the role IT integration on performance of Cement Manufacturing firms in Kenya, to find out the extent to which top management supply support affect performance of Cement Manufacturing firms in Kenya and to find out the effect of lead-time on performance of Cement Manufacturing firms in Kenya. A descriptive research design was used. The target population of the study was Managers or equivalent from Six (6) departments that are Procurement, finance, legal, stores, human resource, and quality control because they are directly concerned with the supply chain. The sample size was 83 respondents from a target population of 500. The study adopted the use of a questionnaire as the main research instrument. The study adopted both quantitative and qualitative approaches, implying that both descriptive statistics and inferential statistics were employed. Quantitative data collected from the questionnaire were analyzed statistically using the Statistical Package for Social Scientist (SPSS version 24). The study tested the significance level of each independent variable against the dependent variable at a 95% confidence level using ANOVA, Correlation and regression techniques. The results revealed that cost management has no significant effect on the performance of cement manufacturing firms. However, through IT firms can manage suppliers information in a more effective and efficient manner. Therefore, IT needs to be used to select suppliers and facilitate interaction with suppliers electronically. Finally, firms have to work collaboratively to serve the customers