Strategic issues in pharmaceutical supply chains: a review

The response of the Irish pharmaceutical manufacturing sector to the COVID-19 pandemic with a focus on Lean and JIT

Background

Just in Time (JIT) and Lean manufacturing are concepts that originated in the automotive industry and were then adopted by pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical companies during the 1990s. However, the Covid-19 pandemic and the urgent demand for pharmaceutical treatment challenged JIT and Lean manufacturing processes. Production of Covid-19-related medicines increased, putting pressure on global supply chains and operations. This also hindered the production of medicines using the same or similar materials. Thus, questions are raised concerning JIT and Lean supply chains in the pharmaceutical industry.

Objectives

The present study aimed to explore (1) if material and supply constraints occurred due to the Covid-19 pandemic, (2) how companies were impacted and managed and (3) if changes are required to future proof the JIT supply chain approach for future global events.

Design

A mixed-method cross-sectional survey design was used and focused on material supply, qualification and validation in Irish pharmaceutical manufacturing sites.

Methods

Employees working in the Irish pharmaceutical manufacturing industry were recruited using convenience sampling through online advertisement using the social media platform 'LinkedIn'. Quantitative data was analysed using percentages and qualitative data from free-text responses were used to add context to the quantitative survey questions.

Results

A total of 41 participants were recruited. The results suggested that the pandemic had a negative effect on material availability according to 81% of participants. This translated to delays or stoppage of production activity and was mainly handled by sourcing new materials (70%). To cope with future global crises, 60% of participants recommended more flexibility in future validation processes while 78% of participants acknowledged the importance of validating additional suppliers. A hybrid model of manufacturing and supply chain management was also a preferred approach to exclusive Lean and JIT (42%).

Conclusions

The production of non-Covid-19 medicines was adversely affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, but the pharmaceutical industry in Ireland demonstrated resilience and collaboration in response to these challenges. This study suggests that the JIT and Lean manufacturing model should be adjusted to ensure medicine supply chains are not disrupted during future global events.

Demand forecasting accuracy in the pharmaceutical supply chain: a machine learning approach

Purpose

Demand foresting significantly impacts supply chain (SC) design and recovery planning. The more accurate the demand forecast, the better the recovery plan and the more resilient the SC. Given the paucity of research about machine learning (ML) applications and the pharmaceutical industry’s need for disruptive techniques, this study aims to investigate the applicability and effect of ML algorithms on demand forecasting. More specifically, the study identifies machine learning algorithms applicable to demand forecasting and assess the forecasting accuracy of using ML in the pharmaceutical SC.

Design/methodology/approach

This research used a single-case explanatory methodology. The exploratory approach examined the study’s objective and the acquisition of information technology impact. In this research, three experimental designs were carried out to test training data partitioning, apply ML algorithms and test different ranges of exclusion factors. The Konstanz Information Miner platform was used in this research.

Findings

Based on the analysis, this study could show that the most accurate training data partition was 80%, with random forest and simple tree outperforming other algorithms regarding demand forecasting accuracy. The improvement in demand forecasting accuracy ranged from 10% to 41%.

Research limitations/implications

This study provides practical and theoretical insights into the importance of applying disruptive techniques such as ML to improve the resilience of the pharmaceutical supply design in such a disruptive time.

Originality/value

The finding of this research contributes to the limited knowledge about ML applications in demand forecasting. This is manifested in the knowledge advancement about the different ML algorithms applicable in demand forecasting and their effectiveness. Besides, the study at hand offers guidance for future research in expanding and analyzing the applicability and effectiveness of ML algorithms in the different sectors of the SC.

Stakeholders’ Perspectives Regarding Supply Chain System of Pharmaceuticals and Vaccines in Pakistan: A Qualitative Study

The present study was undertaken to assess the current supply chain system of pharmaceuticals and vaccines in Pakistan in terms of structure, process, and outcomes, as well as related barriers and solutions for an effective supply chain system. A qualitative study was designed to explore stakeholders’ perceptions selected using the snowball sampling technique. A semi-structured interview guide was used to interview these respondents at a convenient time and place. After data collection, recorded interviews were transcribed verbatim and subjected to thematic analysis. The results highlighted that the standard operating procedures (SOPs), checklists, and government guidelines were available at different levels, except for community pharmacies. Timely delivery of quality products and services along with market reputation, experience, and authorization were the key criteria used for supplier selection and evaluation. Good inventory management, financial models, effective coordination, training, and skill development programs were identified as key factors responsible for an efficient supply chain process. Availability of vaccines, their appropriate temperature monitoring, and transportation are also highly compromised in Pakistan. The results of the present study concluded that the current supply chain system in Pakistan is not up to the mark; major factors include poor forecasting and inventory control, delayed order placement, lack of training, inadequate involvement of professionally qualified staff, inadequate financing and procurement processes, and poor coordination and integration among all stakeholders.

Green pharmaceutical supply chain coordination considering green investment, green logistics, and government intervention

Despite their important role in the fight against global climate change, the coordination of green pharmaceutical supply chains (GPSC) has rarely been studied. To fill this research gap and realize the optimal green performance of GPSC, this study aimed to investigate the coordination of a GPSC considering green investment, green logistics, and government intervention. Using a game-theoretic approach, we establish decision models and analyze the equilibrium strategies in several GPSC scenarios. A linked two-part tariff (LTPT) contract is proposed for the coordination of the GPSC. In addition, we explore the many important implications of changes in the parameters. This research shows that, under different conditions, governments should reasonably implement different interventions in order to promote the positive global performance of GPSC. Government intervention can increase the benchmark height and make more room for green improvement. The proposed LTPT contract can assist in the realization of GPSC coordination, obtain a greater consumer surplus, and achieve optimal green performance. Higher flexibility-influence coefficients of green degree on costs are conducive to the emission reductions and sustainable development of GPSC. Moreover, cultivating green preference in the market can save the government expenditures on subsidies. When the green investment coefficient of a GPSC is larger, the GPSC members lack motivation for green improvement, and the government needs to provide more subsidies rather than taxes in order to improve the green degree of the GPSC. Increased rewards from the government to the pharmaceutical manufacturer and the TPLSP will reduce the subsidies for the pharmaceutical retailer. Government intervention influences the scope of an LTPT contract. The findings provide rich managerial insights and implications for the GPSC policymakers and decision-makers in achieving sustainability goals.

Food Quality, Drug Safety, and Increasing Public Health Measures in Supply Chain Management

Over the last decade, there has been an increased interest in public health measures concerning food quality and drug safety in supply chains and logistics operations. Against this backdrop, this study systematically reviewed the extant literature to identify gaps in studying food quality and drug safety, the proposed solutions to these issues, and potential future research directions. This study utilized content analysis. The objectives of the review were to (1) identify the factors affecting food quality and possible solutions to improve results, (2) analyze the factors that affect drug safety and identify ways to mitigate them through proper management; and (3) establish integrated supply chains for food and drugs by implementing modern technologies, followed by one another to ensure a multi-layered cross-verification cascade and resource management at the different phases to ensure quality, safety, and sustainability for the benefit of public health. This review investigated and identified the most recent trends and technologies used for successfully integrated supply chains that can guarantee food quality and drug safety. Using appropriate keywords, 298 articles were identified, and 205 were shortlisted for the analysis. All analysis and conclusions are based on the available literature. The outcomes of this paper identify new research directions in public health and supply chain management.

Managing supply chains during COVID-19 outbreak: a case of Hong Kong toy manufacturing company

Purpose

This study aims to identify key supply chain challenges and opportunities of the case of Hong Kong toy manufacturing company during the COVID-19 outbreak and develop a comprehensive structural relationship to rank them.

Design/methodology/approach

In this study, a toy model company in Hong Kong is considered to discuss about what challenges and opportunities have the biggest impacts on non-necessary goods companies and how to deal with different impacts on entire supply chain flow disruption during COVID-19. A semi-structured interview with five decision-makers from the company was made to give key challenges and opportunities scores. The Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) technique is used to establish the model and rank them afterward to overcome the challenges.

Findings

From the data analysis and results, “salary of employee” and “inconvenient transportation” have emerged as top and bottom key challenges respectively. The sequence of organized challenges in the list needs to mitigate one by one in this order to improve the supply chain performance. The “client's orders’ frequency, customer management” and “supplier/partner relationship management” are identified as the top and bottom respectively to develop the opportunities.

Research limitations/implications

These key challenges and opportunities are identified as contributing attributes and provide the way to measure to improve production, profits and sustainable growth of the toy manufacturing company during a pandemic. Moreover, it helps to improve the distribution level and good planning with appropriate decision making to manage the supply chain performance considering humanitarian aspects during a pandemic outbreak.

Originality/value

The novelty of this study is to identify the key supply chain challenges and opportunities measured by the TOPSIS method to rank them and consider the case of a Hong Kong toy manufacturing company as a case-based approach to measuring its performance during the COVID-19 outbreak.

Pharmaceutical Supply Chain in China: Pricing and Production Decisions with Price-Sensitive and Uncertain Demand

In this paper, we apply game theory to study the price competition between drugstores and hospitals in China’s pharmaceutical supply chain. Motivated by drug shortages and price disparity problems, we build a simplified model with one supplier, one hospital, and one drugstore in which the sellers sell one kind of drug and compete on price. The hospital receives a discount from the government when ordering the drug and both sellers face a price-sensitive and uncertain demand. The existence and uniqueness of a Nash equilibrium are proved and closed-form solutions are found for linear demand cases. We characterize the pricing and ordering decisions of the hospital and drugstore. The analysis shows that high ex-factory price, high price sensitivity, and a small discount are three factors contributing to drug shortages. We consider two special kinds of linear demand to obtain insights into the drug price disparity problem.

Mapping the key challenges and managing the opportunities in supply chain distribution during COVID-19: a case of Myanmar pharmaceutical company

Purpose

This study aims to present a study on the supply chain process of a Myanmar-based pharmaceutical company (named ABC Pvt. Ltd. in this study) that produces pharmaceutical products across Myanmar and aims of bringing quality medical products and best care for Myanmar people’s health. The study aims to identify the key supply chain challenges and manage the opportunities executed by this pharmaceutical company to improve the supply chain process during the COVID-19 outbreak.

Design/methodology/approach

This work used a case study and conducted semistructured interviews with the manager, senior managers and senior staff of the ABC Company to improve the supply chain process and develop a comprehensive structural relationship to rank them to streamline the uncertainties, real-time information and agility in a digital supply chain using grey relational analysis (GRA) method.

Findings

From the data analysis and results, “Impact of political factor,” “Delay in import process” and “Weak internet connection,” and “Weak knowledge of the use of digital platform,” “Poor information sharing in online by employees” and “Information flow from top management to operational level” have been identified as top and bottom three key challenges, respectively. “Inventory management,” “Selection of transport method” and “Operational cost”, and “Marketing and brand Innovation,” “Online delivery of products” and “E-commerce enablement (Launching applications, tracking system)” are identified as the top and bottom three managing the opportunities, respectively.

Research limitations/implications

The findings of the study help to supply chain decision-makers of the company in their establishment of key challenges and opportunities during the COVID-19 era. As a leading company, it always tries to add value to its product through a supply chain system, effective management teams and working with skillful decision-making toward satisfying the demand on time and monitoring the supplier performance.

Originality/value

The novelty of this study is to identify the key supply chain challenges and opportunities by the GRA method to rank them, considering the case of Myanmar pharmaceutical manufacturing company as a case-based approach to measuring its performance during the COVID-19 outbreak era. This work will assist managers and practitioners help to the company to provide optimal services to its consumers on time in this critical situation.

Implementation of the circular supply chain management in the pharmaceutical industry

The ever-increasing levels of pollution and waste creation have subjected industries around the world to incorporate the concept of circular economy (CE) in their supply chains. The amalgamation of the CE approach along with supply chain management is called circular supply chain management (CSCM). Among other industries, the pharmaceutical industry is also involved in damaging the ecosystem. Hence, an effective framework for the adoption of CSCM in a particular industry is very essential. Therefore, this paper aims to devise a model that will help the pharmaceutical industries to adopt CSCM in their organizations. For this purpose, the study in the first phase identifies ten barriers that are working as an impediment in the adoption of the CSCM approach. To counter those barriers, the study in the second phase identifies a set of twelve enablers. To analyse the barriers and enablers, the study uses a new hybrid methodology. For allocating weights and prioritizing the barriers, the fuzzy multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) technique, i.e. fuzzy full consistency method (F-FUCOM) is used, whereas the total quality management tool, i.e. fuzzy quality function deployment (FQFD) is used to rank the enablers. The results from F-FUCOM suggest "lack of financial resources and funding", "market challenges", and "lack of coordination and collaboration among the entire supply chain network" to be the top-most barriers, respectively, whereas the results achieved from the FQFD suggest "industrial symbiosis", "Reverse Logistic (RL) infrastructure", and "block chain technology" to be the top-ranked enablers, respectively. The provision of a facilitating framework for the adoption of CSCM in the pharmaceutical industry and the newly developed hybrid methodology are both novelties of this study.

Critical Success Factors and Traceability Technologies for Establishing a Safe Pharmaceutical Supply Chain

Drug counterfeits have been an international issue for almost two decades, and the latest statistics show that fake medications will continue to penetrate legitimate pharmaceutical supply chains (PSCs). Therefore, identifying the issues faced by PSCs is essential to combat the counterfeit drug problem, which will require the implementation of technologies in various phases of the PSC to gain better visibility. In this regard, a literature review was conducted to fulfill the following objectives: (i) review the application of traceability technologies in various PSC phases to detect counterfeits; (ii) analyze the various barriers affecting the establishment of a safe PSC and the critical success factors used to overcome those barriers; and (iii) develop a conceptual framework and guidelines to demonstrate the influence of traceability technologies and success factors on overcoming the various barriers in different phases of the PSC. The major finding of this review was that traceability technologies and the critical success factors have a significant influence on overcoming the barriers to establishing a safe PSC.

Material convergence issue in the pharmaceutical supply chain during a disease outbreak

Purpose

Pharmaceutical donations are a practical approach to increase medicine availability during disasters such as disease outbreaks. However, often donated pharmaceuticals are inappropriate and unsuitable. This convergence of inappropriate pharmaceuticals is a severe operational challenge and results in environmental hazards. This study explores the pharmaceutical supply chains (PSCs) during a disease outbreak to relieve the negative impact of the material convergence problem (MCP).

Design/methodology/approach

This study adopts a situation-actors-process learning-action-performance (SAP-LAP) linkage framework to understand the PSC dynamics. The problem-solving component of the SAP-LAP analysis provides the strategies catering to MCP. The findings from the SAP-LAP helped to develop the causal loop diagram (CLD). This study conducts several experiments on the proposed strategies by integrating CLD into a stock and flow diagram. Later, a disease outbreak case study accessed the pharmaceutical donations effect on PSC performance.

Findings

The study synthesises and evaluates propositions and strategies to incorporate circular economy (CE) principles in PSC. This study proposed two strategies; one to sort and supply and the other to sort, supply and resell. The reuse policy improves humanitarian organisations' finances in the simulation study. This study verified the operational improvement of PSC by reducing the transport and storage burden due to MCP.

Originality/value

This study comprehensively approaches the issue of drug donation and uniquely produced several propositions for incorporating a CE perspective in PSC. The study also proposed a unique simulation approach to model the donation arrivals in response to a disease outbreak using susceptible, exposed, infectious and recovered modelling.

The Characteristics of Regional Value Chains in the Sector of Chemicals and Pharmaceutical Products in the EU

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted trade flows, causing a trade drop in 2020 that was especially sensitive for pharmaceutical and medical products necessary to ensure public health. The production of pharmaceutical products is dispersed in a framework of global value chains. This study aimed to provide a detailed analysis of the EU situation in the sector of production of chemical and pharmaceutical products, to discover the fragmentation of production chains within the EU as well as globally. International inter-country input–output tables were employed to disaggregate the value-added created in EU member states. The GVC and RVC participation indexes, backward and forward participation, length of sourcing, and selling value chains were calculated and compared with the main global hubs.

Research and development efforts in Indian pharmaceutical industry: How much does it matter?

Purpose

The economic value generated by a firm is determined by the efficient management of its resources within a given business environment. The Indian pharmaceutical industry is highly competitive and has attracted huge investments in research and development (R&D), including financing of biotechnological ventures, clinical trials, contract research activities in addition to traditional product development and filing of regulatory requirements. This study aims to identify the specific resources that are significant drivers of performance.

Design/methodology/approach

Data analysis uses panel regression based on an extended version of the Cobb-Douglas production function, where the dependent variable firm performance is measured using annual sales whilst the independent variables include labour, capital, R&D investments and marketing efforts. This study uses data spanning a period of 7 years (2012–2018) collected from 151 Indian pharmaceutical firms.

Findings

Contrary to the general understanding that R&D investments tend to create profitable opportunities, it is observed that R&D expenditures have a negative impact on sales in the short to medium time period. This study also highlights the finding that in addition to the positive impact of labour and capital, marketing efforts are more likely to have a greater positive influence on firm performance than R&D.

Originality/value

The uniqueness of the paper lies not only in the counterintuitive findings but also in the methodology used to capture the impact of the lagged effect of R&D investments on firm performance. Specifically, a regression model-based both on panel data and time-series averages is used to examine the said impact.

Do Supply Chain Performance Influence Firm Profitability? A Predictive Approach in the Context of the Indian Pharmaceutical Industry

The competitive nature of the pharmaceutical industry necessitates that its multifaceted supply-chain be cost-efficient and profitable. This paper aims to ascertain the critical supply-chain financial indicators influencing pharmaceutical-supply-chain (PSC) performance, revealing its unique features and assessing these indicators’ effect on profitability.

This paper measures the PSC performance of 55 public-limited Indian pharmaceutical firms, including multinational enterprises, integrating supply-chain financial variables and SCOR KPIs through a ten-year timeline. The critical supply-chain-performance indicators (SCPIs) are identified from the measured set through factor analysis. A panel data random effect model is developed, linking these critical SCPIs and profitability to understand their significant influence on profitability.

This paper has evidenced the existence of three critical SCPIs, revealing working capital efficiency, material flow efficiency and investment efficiency. It has also proved the significant influence of these SCPIs on firms’ profitability and has brought out the importance of material flow efficiency in terms of inventory and distribution efficiency as a leading contributing factor for profitability.

This paper contributes to finding key PSC performance features and their vital role in pharmaceutical firms’ profitability. Supply-chain managers can enhance PSC’s specific performance areas to be cost-efficient and can increase the firm’s profitability.

Strategic issues of big data analytics applications for managing health-care sector: a systematic literature review and future research agenda

Purpose

The proposed article is aimed at exploring the opportunities, challenges and possible outcomes of incorporating big data analytics (BDA) into health-care sector. The purpose of this study is to find the research gaps in the literature and to investigate the scope of incorporating new strategies in the health-care sector for increasing the efficiency of the system.

Design/methodology/approach

Fora state-of-the-art literature review, a systematic literature review has been carried out to find out research gaps in the field of healthcare using big data (BD) applications. A detailed research methodology including material collection, descriptive analysis and categorization is utilized to carry out the literature review.

Findings

BD analysis is rapidly being adopted in health-care sector for utilizing precious information available in terms of BD. However, it puts forth certain challenges that need to be focused upon. The article identifies and explains the challenges thoroughly.

Research limitations/implications

The proposed study will provide useful guidance to the health-care sector professionals for managing health-care system. It will help academicians and physicians for evaluating, improving and benchmarking the health-care strategies through BDA in the health-care sector. One of the limitations of the study is that it is based on literature review and more in-depth studies may be carried out for the generalization of results.

Originality/value

There are certain effective tools available in the market today that are currently being used by both small and large businesses and corporations. One of them is BD, which may be very useful for health-care sector. A comprehensive literature review is carried out for research papers published between 1974 and 2021.

Antecedents to buyer-supplier coordination in the pharmaceutical supply chain

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to understand the antecedents that influence supply chain coordination in the pharmaceutical supply chain using the transaction cost analysis framework.

Design/methodology/approach

Data from 156 retail pharmacies on their relationship with the pharmaceutical wholesalers are used to test the hypotheses.

Findings

The findings of this paper show the importance of antecedents that are based on the transactional cost theory, such as asset specificity and environmental uncertainty. These antecedents impact the supply chain process coordination at different levels – transactional, operational and strategic.

Research limitations/implications

Future research may investigate additional antecedents using other theoretical lenses.

Practical implications

Pharmaceutical wholesalers are dependent on pharmaceutical manufacturers for the supply of products and face intense competition that results in lower profit margins. Given that the pharmaceutical industry is strictly regulated, the wholesaler facilitates regulatory compliance of the manufacturers in the distribution process by coordinating with them. But the wholesalers do also face a constant threat from the manufacturers, who could potentially bypass the wholesalers (disintermediation) and go directly to the pharmacies. To counterbalance the dependence, the wholesalers strive to achieve loyalty with the retail pharmacies. Through supply chain coordination, the wholesalers achieve efficiency in procurement for the pharmacies, thus reducing cost and improving their competitive advantage.

Social implications

Supply chain coordination in the pharmaceutical supply chain improves the safety and security of the pharmaceutical distribution system.

Originality/value

This paper contributes to the supply chain coordination stream of literature. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to develop the three levels of process coordination in the pharmaceutical supply chain context. This paper shows how process coordination can be achieved between the dyad without vertical integration.

Supply chain lead time reduction in a pharmaceutical production warehouse – a case study

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to apply value stream mapping (VSM) in Malaysian pharmaceutical production warehouse. A current and future state value stream map from the raw material receiving end to the production unit was developed to find out waste and unwanted lead time. It was very much essential to cut down the supply chain lead time at the initial phase as the raw material unloading, sorting, temporary storage and dispatch to production were seen contributing to a huge lead time build-up.

Design/methodology/approach

The study was initiated with the selection of a product family, construction of the current state map, identification of various wastes and the development of future state map.

Findings

The expected outcomes of the study include the quantification of wastes, improvement in value-added percentage and lead time reduction.

Research limitations/implications

The study was carried out in a single pharmaceutical company. The results of the study are deployable and can be functional in similar production organizations. Contrary to common VSMs that capture core production processes, this study provides strong insights that shall help design lean supply chains, especially in the pharmaceutical domain. This paper has also addressed the viability of the lean in the pharmaceutical warehouse and the reduction in lead time to improve demand forecasting, marketing and sales.

Practical implications

The results of this study have indicated that a significant reduction in pharmaceutical warehouse supply chain lead time is possible as a result of the implementation of VSM from the supply chain’s perspective.

Social implications

The insights from this study help in understanding the pharmaceutical supply chain risks and their outcomes.

Originality/value

The paper reports a real-time study conducted in a warehouse of a pharmaceutical organization. Hence, the contributions are original.

Segmental differences in pharmaceutical industry and its impact on supply chain performance

Purpose

Pharmaceutical industry involves highly specialized business processes where strong research and development focus along with market differentiation and localization are the deciders of success. This has led to evolution of segments and complexities in supply chain. This paper aims to focus on segmental differences in supply chain performance of Indian Pharmaceutical firms.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper measures supply chain performance of select segmental players of the pharmaceutical industry using financial metrics and supply chain operations reference (SCOR) key performance indicators through a five-year timeline. The best performance results are compared across the segments to identify unique performance features, if any. The sample results are validated through hypothesis testing methodology.

Findings

This paper has evidenced that the innovators segment is performing better in cash-to-cash cycle time and supply chain working capital productivity, whereas generics segment is doing better in distribution cost efficiency and total cost to serve aspects.

Research limitations/implications

The paper is based on historical financial data of firms and measures the firm focused supply chain performance. The results may not be generalized in a global context but serve as a motivator for other researchers to take similar studies. The paper may further be analyzed with primary data of the firms to understand the segmental difference in customer focus supply chain performance measures.

Practical implications

This paper has brought out important segmental supply chain performance features of the Indian pharmaceutical firms and identified segment-specific problems by integrating SCOR KPIs and financial metrics.

Originality/value

This paper has integrated both SCOR KPIs and financial metrics to provide unique insights on segmental differences in the performance behavior of pharmaceutical supply chain.

A systematic literature review of healthcare supply chain and implications of future research

Purpose

This paper aims to review the healthcare supply chain (HSC) literature along various areas and to find out the gap in it.

Design/methodology/approach

In total, 143 research papers were reviewed during 1996-2017. A critical review was carried out in various dimensions such as research methodologies/data collection method (empirical, case study and literature review) and inquiry mode of research methodology (qualitative, quantitative and mixed), country-specific, targeted area, research aim and year of publication.

Findings

Supply chain (SC) operations, performance measurement, inventory management, lean and agile operation, and use of information technology were well studied and analyzed, however, employee and customer training, tracking and visibility of medicines, cold chain management, human resource practices, risk management and waste management are felt to be important areas but not much attention were made in this direction.

Research limitations/implications

Mainly drug and vaccine SC were considered in current study of HSC while SC along healthcare equipment and machine, hospitality and drug manufacturing related papers were excluded in this study.

Practical implications

This literature review has recognized and analyzed various issues relevant to HSC and shows the direction for future research to develop an efficient and effective HSC.

Originality/value

The insight of various aspects of HSC was explored in general for better and deeper understanding of it for designing of an efficient and competent HSC. The outcomes of the study may form a basis to decide direction of future research.

Application of principles of supply chain management to the pharmaceutical good transportation practices

Purpose

Pharmaceuticals supply chain management (SCM) requires special expertise to transport the medicinal products because of weird features of their demand, supply and sensitivity towards quality. The purpose of this study is to establish the linkage of pharmaceutical quality system requirements with the SCM principles. The study enables the collaborative approach of technical, transport, logistics and supply chain teams within the pharmaceutical industry.

Design/methodology/approach

The methodology followed for this study is literature review and survey. The study is supplemented with data obtained through the structured questionnaire.

Findings

Through this study, an exclusive perspective for pharmaceutical good transportation practice (GTP) has been propagated in alignment with seven principles of SCM by Anderson. This study offers guidance to pharmaceutical industry for transportation of products by conceptualizing basic supply chain features such as segmentation, customization of requirement, market signals, differentiation, technology orientation and channel spanning performance.

Research limitations/implications

Here is limited information available about the transportation failures in the pharmaceutical industry. Application of supply chain principles to pharmaceutical transportation is sometimes affected by technical knowledge bias of the researcher.

Practical implications

The study has successfully expounded the practical aspects of pharmaceutical GTP for supply chain professionals.

Social implications

The study facilitates the patients and pharmaceutical consumers to get quality products in a timely manner across the globe.

Originality/value

The application of SCM principles to the pharmaceutical GTP is the result of novel research and has not been studied earlier.

Analysis of government-supported health-care supply chain enablers: a case study

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to identify, analyze and classify (i.e. driving and dependence power) the government-supported health-care supply chain enablers (GHSCEs) in rural areas of India for enhancing availability and minimizing wastage of generic medicines.

Design/methodology/approach

A methodology is proposed using interpretive structural modeling (ISM) – fuzzy matriced impacts croises multiplication appliqueeaun classement (Fuzzy MICMAC) analysis to analyze the GHSCEs on the basis of inputs collected from various stakeholders about their driving and dependence power.

Findings

The performance measurement system, employee recognition and reward, technology adoption, training cell and inbuilt analytical tool for IT system were found to be the appropriate GHSCEs where efforts and resources should be put for enhancing availability and minimizing wastage.

Research limitations/implications

The proposed approach provides a platform for the both researchers and academicians to understand the GHSCEs and their relationships. It also provides the direction to the government for optimally allocating the efforts and resources to enhance the current performance level of generic drug distribution.

Originality/value

Although many issues related to health-care supply chain have been widely researched and reported, no literature has been found for analysis of GHSCEs to choose the appropriate set of GHSCEs for supply chain performance improvement in general and developing country like India in specific.