International Journal of Innovative Research and Development

Abstract

Textile industries among other companies are continually declining in production use at Economic Survey 2010 forcing others to close which attributed to “mitumba” and cheap Asian products. The objective of the study is to assess the effectiveness of strategies that are deployed to reduce or eliminate the looming threat of cheap substitute from “mitumba” and Asian product. The study was carried in Bedi, Spin-Knit, Tulips, Ken-Knit and Rivatex employees in Nakuru and Eldoret County. Descriptive design was deployed where questionnaires was administrated to employees as well as an interview to managers. The findings were that technology was highest linked with improvement reflected by high machine replacement, innovation and technology department and the highest cost reducing factor. The cost reduction strategy was rated the second after technology but also technology highest factor followed by sourcing others are lean production, mechanization, recycling and lastly retrenchment respectively as an element of cost reduction. Differentiation strategy was the last where cotton was the highest hence less differentiation in type of material. The conclusion and recommendation are that technology and innovation department should be vibrant in advising the industry on dynamic change of technology because Kenya use manual sewing machine unlike Asian countries that have adopted CAD and CAM system that add value, efficient and cheap in cost. The government should encourage investors as well as farmers for cotton production and raise taxation in “mitumba” industry because it gives low revenue to the country, kills cotton and work force. Differentiation strategy is dependent on technology while customization is common because of the uniform. Cost reduction strategy is linked to technology improvement and sourcing of materials. Hence in summary sourcing should be done in purchase and supply department, the right new technology used in the production unit and much it with the right marketing strategy which are differentiation and cost reduction strategy which aligns it with the value chain.

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