Process Control as a Total Quality Management System and Performance of Selected Tea Processing Firms in Meru and Tharaka Nithi Counties of Kenya

The tea sector is considered a key pillar of the national economy accounting for 25 percent of total export earnings. However, the general performance of the sector as reflected in the incomes attributable to farmers, cost of production, conversion factors, and total yields has been declining. Informed by the deteriorating performance indicators, tea processing firms have been pursuing quality initiatives to enhance performance as represented in theory. The investigation wanted to prove the effect of process control as a total quality management system on the performance of tea processing firms. The investigation chose a descriptive research design and the target population comprised eight tea processing firms managed by Kenya Tea Development Agency. Descriptive and inferential statistics were adopted in the analysis of data. The Pearson correlation analysis output showed that process control as a total quality management system has a positive and statistically notable relationship with performance of tea processing firms. Despite the findings that general performance of the tea processing firms was fairly good, it was established that the tea processing firms was operating with a significantly high average cost of production occasioning need to pursue containment measures. It is recommended that the tea processing firms should explore further cost containment initiatives to check escalation which dilutes the ultimate returns attributable to shareholders. To improve on process control as a total quality dimension, the study recommends heightened pursuit of this dimension of the total quality management system as results indicated great benefits towards enhancement of organizational performance. The study recommends enhanced appreciation and acknowledgment of the quality management system as a process that requires enhanced empowerment of stakeholders to positively contribute to improvement.