Author(s): Vijayalakshmi Iyengar
Purpose This paper aims to determine the impact of lean and resilient practices on the sustainability of supply chain management in the healthcare sector. The relationship between sustainability (economic, environmental, and social), lean and resilient factors is being analyzed to apprehend the dependency on each other. The integration of environmental and social aspects with economic considerations, known as the triple-bottom-line (TBL) has gained relevance for managerial decision-making in general and supply chain management (SCM) in particular. This process will help the healthcare professionals to take accurate decisions to focus on the most significant factor that influences the sustainability of Healthcare's Supply Chain management. Methodology The healthcare sector and its supply chain were chosen as lean and resilient practices have proven to be effective in this industry. To identify the relationships between lean and resilient supply chain practices and their impact on the three different dimensions of sustainability, a methodology based on the Interpretive Structural Modelling (ISM) Approach is used. Findings The results show a synergistic effect between lean and resilient practices. The former practice acts as a driving force for the latter practice. Therefore, lean practices, especially the use of electronic data interchange, have had a direct and indirect impact on supply chain sustainability. Research limitations The relationship between lean and resilient practices in the healthcare sector has been studied. Different sectors may produce different results because critical factors across sectors may differ, and the methodology implemented within each process may also differ. The environment, regulations, firm size and competition varies across sectors hence results of the present study cannot be generalized. Originality This study makes a significant contribution by considering larger number of practices in each paradigm to better reflect the existing relationships between practices. It is possible that this was overlooked previously. A total of 16 lean and agile SC practices and 15 sustainability measures have been identified and the relationship is studied using Interpretive Structural Modelling (ISM). ISM holds the strength of converting the mental models into structured hierarchical models and the current relationship between lean and resilient supply chain practices and their impact on sustainability is analyzed using ISM is a unique contribution to literature. In addition, several healthcare experts have been approached to provide their perspectives on various parameters. This data has been entered into the ISM model to assist experts in making better decisions. The creation of linkages between multiple lean and resilient strategies and sustainability measures through a single systemic framework is a major contribution of this research. The three sustainability dimensions were put into an ISM model. The ISM technique was used to accomplish this.