Effect of Multi Echelon Distribution System on Supply Chain Performance in Manufacturing Industry in Rwanda, A Case of Inyange Industries-Rwanda

Today, most companies have more complex supply chain networks in a more volatile business environment due to global sourcing, outsourcing of production and serving customers all over the world with a complex distribution network that has several facilities linked by various activities. Effective management of material flow across a supply chain is a difficult problem due to the dynamic environment with multiple objectives. The majority of the solution approaches used to solve supply chain problems were based on conventional methods using analytical techniques. In response to the aforementioned challenge, one of the primary objectives of this paper is to determine the effect of multi echelon distribution system on supply chain performance in manufacturing industry in Rwanda and Specific Objectives are: to determine the effect of order size on supply chain performance in manufacturing industry, to analyze the effect of inventory policy on supply chain performance in manufacturing industry, to establish the effect of supplier integration on supply chain performance in manufacturing industry, to assess the effect of Information Communication Technology adoption on supply chain performance manufacturing industry. The study employed the use of questionnaire to collect data. Descriptive research design was used. The study adopted simple random sampling techniques approach to analyze the data. Statistical package for social science (SPSS) version 24 was used to report the descriptive statistics for various variables in the study. The results of this study show that it is important to deploy products in distribution centers with backroom storage to outperform orders that lead to cost reduction and higher profit where primary purpose is retail store order fulfillment and considers the interactions between different unit operations from the outset, rather than optimizing them separately. As conclusion, Manufacturing companies should consider the application of multi echelon distribution systems in both their upstream and downstream distribution systems to achieve benefits such as to stand up to the complexities of retail- and wholesale-specific requirements, to set achievable and clear service level goals, reduced distribution time and stock holding costs, to balance business constraints and financial targets to ensure achievement of improved efficiency and effectiveness and quality outputs. The study recommends that manufacturing companies should have well established distribution systems to ensure efficient and effective supply chains that will assist them achieve their business goals.