Have you ever wondered what the state of manufacturing in Kenya was? Manufacturing contributes to 9.2% of Kenya’s GDP and potential to create thousands of jobs and it’s important for us to know the state of the manufacturing industry.
SYSPRO, a global provider of industry-built Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software for manufacturers and distributors, together with Strathmore University, released a research finding from a study that saw close to 100 companies drawn from 12 sectors of the production and manufacturing industry in Kenya interviewed.
The study explored productivity and competitiveness of the manufacturing sector in Kenya, the role of new technologies in improving the sector and the state of adoption and use of these new technologies.
One of the areas that they explored was the barriers that limit productivity which are
- Lacks access to an efficient and effective labour force
- inadequate infrastructure
- political uncertainties
- corruption
- high cost of power
- poor business environment
One major problem that most companies have not taken up was the use of technology and other ICTs and a focus on stock and flow of skills that could change the current status and improve manufacturing
Most companies that took part in the research admitted that they have shied away from in cooperating ICT in their processes.53 companies had plans to upgrade their hardware and software
Challenges posed to their upgrading plans:
- Software costs was a major hindrance.
- Hardware costs followed technical skills and expertise gap
Role of new technologies in improving productivity and competitiveness
The most desirable objective considered for recent automation project was to improve business efficiency followed by improvement in product quality. Other desirable objectives were:
- Improved business efficiency
- Improved product quality
- Reduce downtime
- Reduce staff costs
- Improve cycle time
So, which are the top three areas earmarked as future ICT improvement areas:
- Upgrading of ICT infrastructure e.g., internet/intranet, security;
- Company Financial or accounting software; and
- Warehouse management systems.
Many companies have not yet accessed the real benefits of automating their systems and this where companies like SYSPRO come in. Whether you are a small company or a large company, you need a reliable ERP to help you in 7 main areas:
- Inventory management
- Manufacturing and production
- Valuation and costing
- Movement and distribution
- Requirement planning
- Orders and replenishment
- Planning and forecasting
From the above, you can see that if a manufacturing company decides to automate, they will not only save time, but they will save a lot of money as well as increase productivity.
The report was launched on 3rd July 2019, at Nairobi Serena Hotel. In attendance were stakeholders from the manufacturing companies, Madam Betty Maina, the Principal Secretary, State Department of Investment and Industry in the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Cooperatives, Colonel Cyrus Odhiambo Oguna, the Government spokesman, Dr Vincent Ogutu , Vice Chancellor Designate Strathmore University
About SYSPRO
SYSPRO is a manufacture and distribution ERP company with a deep knowledge of the environments we operate in which allows companies the ability to future proof there investments.
SYSPRO has grown to have customer in 6 continents which now includes over 15000 customers in 62 countries and they have over 98% customer retention built on 1 business system with unlimited supply chain solutions