Effect of KAIZEN on Managing Cost Levels in the Pharmaceutical Industry in Kenya

This article examines the effect of KAIZEN in managing cost levels in the pharmaceutical industry in Kenya. On - probability sampling technique under the category of purposive sampling was used. The population of interest was composed of twenty three pharmaceutical manufacturing firms located in Nairobi, registered in the Kenya Fact book 16th Edition, 2001 & The Kenya Telephone Directory 2004 and nine pharmaceutical companies , 23 employees in manufacturing, finance, procurement, warehousing were selected out of the target population of 28. The research instrument was a questionnaire. Analysis of the data was done using descriptive statistics and inferential statistics .The study affirmed by 82.3% that Kaizen (Continuous Improvement) had a statistically significant association with the cost level management. The study recommends that pharmaceutical companies in Kenya should fully adopt lean manufacturing in order to manage its cost levels hence give the firm a competitive advantage.