Product Development and Process Improvement in Small and Medium Food Manufacturing Firms in Nairobi City County, Kenya
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Date
2020
Authors
Mwasiaji, Evans T.
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
SSRG-IJEMS
Abstract
This study investigated product development and
process improvement for Small and Medium food
manufacturing firms in Nairobi Kenya, considering
that the country’s manufacturing output has
stagnated at about USD 5 billion for over ten years,
and the current proposal to support the sector to
increase its GDP share to 15% by year 2022. Data
was collected from 56 management staff. Mean
responses received in a Likert scale of 1 – 5 for each
of the tested item was calculated forall the
respondents. The results show that there is a
significant difference in firms’ level of performance
on various product improvement imperatives. To
establish the level of firm performance in relation to
the tested items, a one-way analysis of variance was
conducted on the mean response on the data
collection items. A mean response at 3.31 and a
standard deviation at 0.80 was established.The study
recommends that all the product development
processes within the sampled firms be reengineered
to undertake quality improvement journey, because
their current methods seem to be inadequate to attain
and sustain high quality in a competitive business
environment. Thisstudy is useful in progressing
knowledge and in the design of policies to enhanced
competitiveness of food manufacturing SMEs in
support of Kenya’s big four agenda and vision 2030
Description
article
Keywords
Product Development, Process Improvement, SMEs, Quality, Food Processing, Competitiveness
Citation
Mwasiaji, E. T. Product Development And Process Improvement In Small And Medium Food Manufacturing Firms In Nairobi City County, Kenya.