Logistics Management and Marketing Performance of Selected Small and Medium-Sized Manufacturing Firms in Port Harcourt Metropolis, Rivers State (Published)
The research examines the effect of logistics management on the marketing outcomes of SMMFs in Port Harcourt metropolis, Rivers State, Nigeria. Given the crucial role logistics plays in optimizing business performance, this research specifically focuses on four key logistics management practices: demand forecasting, lead time, supplier relationships and packaging. The research seeks to evaluate the effect of these practices on marketing performance. This study adopted cross-sectional survey research design with a sample of 156 employees from eight SMMFs in Port Harcourt. The data were obtained by a structured questionnaire and analyzed by the software SPSS; simple linear regression was used to verify the hypotheses. The results reveal that demand forecasting, lead time, and packaging enhance the marketing performance but supplier relationships deteriorate the marketing performance. The findings indicate that while accurate demand forecasting, short lead time and good packaging strategies improve marketing performance, the opposite is true for supplier relationship management. This research conclude that logistics management practices can be used to improve marketing performance, particularly for SMEs, which are scarce in logistics literature. This study provides recommendations for SMMFs to enhance their logistics strategies in order to enhance customer satisfaction, minimize operational expense, and gain market share.
Keywords: Lead Time, Logistics Management, Marketing Performance, Packaging, Port Harcourt, Supplier Relationships, demand forecasting, small and medium-sized manufacturing firms
Assessing Users’ Satisfaction of Medical Logistics Supply Chain System in Ghana- Case of Sandema District Hospital (Published)
The study is to investigate the satisfaction of users with medical logistics supply chain. The study focused on Sandema district hospital as the study site from which information was collected. The researcher adopted the mixed research approach. From the perspective of Creswell (2012) a mixed approach research design enables the researcher to use objective methods to measure the incidence of various opinions in a chosen sample. A mixed approach research design further enhances an in-depth and rich account of the constructs that are being investigated (Saunders, Lewis & Thornhil, 2007; Yin, 2003). Four research questions were formulated for the research. The researcher used quantitative survey approach to gather information from a large spectrum of patients of Sandema district hospital in his quest to ascertain their satisfaction with medical logistics at the hospital. The target population of this study included staff and patients of the Sandema hospital. The researcher chose a sample of two hundred (200) patients and ten (10) health personnel in order to organize appropriate data useful for the study. The purposive and convenience sampling technique were the most appropriate sampling techniques utilized by the researcher. The study revealed that health personnel of the Sandema Hospital had fore knowledge about medical logistics supply chain as all the activities that are involved in the procuring, management and the usage consumable and non-consumable materials of the hospital. Also, stores and the procurement unit of the Sandema District Hospital is the department or unit within the Sandema Hospital that is responsible for the procurement and the storage of medical logistics before these medical logistics get to the final consumer (patients/health personnel). Despite some challenges confronting the Sandema hospital with respect to medical logistics supply chain, the health personnel of the hospital are satisfied with the medical logistics supply chain as it enables them to perform their duties efficiently. Contrary to the above assertions, the study further revealed that majority of the patients is not satisfied with the hospitals ability to supply medical logistics for their treatment. Finally, the study revealed lack of funds in acquiring medical logistics, little knowledge of medical logistics supply chain, poor internal control, long and bureaucratic procedures in the medical logistics supply chain and delay in the payment of medical logistics.
Keywords: Logistics Management, Marketing Management, Material Management, Performance Impact, Procurement, Supply chain management