Prioritizing lean supply chain management initiatives in healthcare service operations: A Fuzzy-AHP approach

TLDR

The study proposes a holistic framework to prioritize lean supply‑chain management initiatives in healthcare operations by weighting initiatives against multiple performance measures to uncover motivating factors. Twenty‑four initiatives were identified, grouped into four categories via Q‑sort, and prioritized using Fuzzy AHP based on their relative importance across three performance dimensions. Results show continuous improvement drives operational and financial performance, enterprise alignment/integration enhances organizational image and operational performance, and customer needs are the primary driver for adopting lean SCM strategies.

Abstract

The main purpose of this study is to propose a holistic approach for prioritizing lean SCM initiatives in healthcare service operations, based on relative weights of various initiatives on a range of performance measures for better understanding of what motivations and supporting factors influence the selection of LSCM initiative/strategy. Twenty-four LSCM initiatives were identified, using a comprehensive literature review. Q-sort method was initially used to categorize those initiatives into four categories: (a) Continuous process improvement; (b) Enterprise alignment/integration; (c) Waste elimination; and (d) Flow management/JIT. Fuzzy AHP was used to prioritize the four categories based on its relative weight of importance on three different performance dimensions. The result shows that continuous improvement is a dominating LSCM initiative in increasing operational and financial performance while enterprise alignment/integration is a dominating initiative in enhancing organizational images and operational performance. Finally, it is noted that customer needs and influence are the most important drivers to encourage hospital to adopt LSCM strategy.