Supplier Involvement and Organisational Performance of Manufacturing Companies: A Case Study of Mukwano Industries, Kampala-Uganda

ABSTRACT

The study established the effect of supplier involvement on organisational performance in Mukwano Industries, three specific objectives guided this study and these were; (i) to find out the factors affecting supplier involvement in Mukwano Industries, (ii) to examine the level of organizational performance in Mukwano Industries Ltd, and (iii) to establish the relationship between supplier involvement and organizational performance in Mukwano Industries Ltd. The study adopted and employed a descriptive survey design which determines and reports the way things are. The researcher made use of descriptive research design using both qualitative and quantitative approaches to data collection. The study used a research population of 48 and a sample size of 41. The findings indicated that; the study confirmed that Mukwano Industries has embraced the concept of supplier involvement as it had incorporated most variables in their operations. Mukwano Industries built relationship with its suppliers based on informing sharing, joint decision making and incentive alignment but with most of the emphasis on incentive alignment. This revealed that the supplier involvement was rated high at 2.90, the findings revealed that organizational performance was rated satisfactory and this was indicated by the overall mean of 2.73 and this implies that the Mukwano Industries do the work efficiently and effectively, the findings indicated a positive significant relationship between buyer-supplier relationship and organizational performance in Mukwano Industries, and this was indicated by the sig value of 0.00 1 which was less than 0.05, this therefore implies that high supplier involvement increases the level of organizational performance, and low supplier involvement reduces it. The researcher concluded that; the linkage between buyer-supplier collaboration and performance is clear in that when manufacturing firms align incentives, jointly make decisions and share information, performance will improve in regard to customer satisfaction, supplier retention and timely deliveries whereby supplier retention 2.86 was found to be the most practiced activity in Mukwano Industries compared to customer satisfaction 2.60 and timely deliveries 2.73. The researcher concluded that Mukwano Industries focused mainly on supplier retention compared to both customer satisfaction and timely deliveries. Also basing on the findings, the researcher concluded that that highly satisfying supplier involvement contributes to organizational performance in Mukwano Industries. The researcher recommended that; Mukwano Industries should make sure that their suppliers are always free to share important information that is of their interest, the researcher recommends that the suppliers should provide them with sales forecasts for the products the company buys from them, still the researcher recommends that the Mukwano Industries should always have joint investments with their suppliers, and Mukwano Industries should make sure that they continue with the purchasing arrangements with most of the suppliers.