Development of causal model of sustainable hospital supply chain management using the Intuitionistic Fuzzy Cognitive Map (IFCM) method
Journal of Industrial Engineering and Management
JIEM
2013-0953
Development of Causal Model of Sustainable Hospital Supply Chain Management Using the Intuitionistic Fuzzy Cognitive Map (IFCM) Method
Seyed Habibollah Mirghafoori 0
Ali Morovati Sharifabadi 0
Salim Karimi Takalo 1
0 Yazd University , Islamic Republic of Iran
1 Management Faculty of vali-E-Asr University , Islamic Republic of Iran
Purpose: Service industry is a massive sector accounting for about two-thirds of GDP of developed economies and is the field of an intensive competition between service companies and their supply chains. As a result, service supply chain management has become a subject of growing interest to researchers and business analysts. Healthcare industry is among the largest service industries with the highest potential for improvement in sustainability performance. The purpose of this study was to identify the concepts influencing the sustainability of hospital supply chain and provide a causal model for sustainable supply chain of hospital service. two aspects of contribution are identified for this research. Design/methodology/approach: In this study, concepts that influence the sustainability of a hospital service supply chain were identified by in-depth interviewing of 18 experts in hospitals of Kerman, Iran. Delphi method was used to reorganize the initial concepts into 15 concepts, Thus, a framework for sustainable supply chain of the hospital is proposed in the present study. This is the first contribution of this study. The second contribution is using the intuitive fuzzy cognitive map method for the relationship between extracted concepts. Findings: Delphi method was used to reorganize 68 initial concepts into 15 concepts Contains: demand management, resource and capacity management, customer relationship management, supplier relationship management, service management, information management, financial performance management, Attention to the environment, contamination, energy consumption, legal requirements, employees, community and stakeholders, social accountability and business ethics. The results indicate that service delivery management is highly central among other concepts. Originality/value: with focusing on concepts such as service management, and capacity and resources management, The sustainability of the hospital supply chain can be improved.
service supply chain; sustainable supply chain management; Delphi method; hospital; intuitionistic fuzzy cognitive map
1. Introduction
Supply chain management (SCM) has long been a subject of interest to researchers. In today?s economy,
competition is no longer between companies, but rather between their supply chains
(Hult, Ketchen & Arrfelt,
2007)
. Supply chain is a dynamic process involving continuous flow of materials, financial resources, and
information across functional areas and within and between the chain members, i.e. supply, production, and
distribution (Ahi & Searcy, 2013). Nowadays, companies have to ensure that all processes of business, from
acquisition of raw materials to delivery of final products, are systematically integrated. This goal can be achieved by
the use of SCM as means of integrated control over the flow of materials, goods, money, and information
(Angerhofer & Angelides, 2000). SCM consists of all functions that are directly or indirectly involved in satisfying
the customers? demands, and include manufacturers and suppliers, as well as distributors, warehouses, and retailers
(Ahi & Searcy, 2013). There have been many studies on SCM, not only at tactical and operational levels, but also at
strategic level
(Chang & Harris, 2001; Surana, Kumara, Greaves & Raghavan, 2005; Huang, Lau & Mak, 2003;
Gunasekaran, Patel & McGaughey, 2004)
, which many experts believe to be the most important aspect of this field
(Guill?n, 2005). In recent decades, growing public attention to issues such as energy prices, resource constraints,
climate change, and social responsibility of businesses, particularly in regard to greenhouse gas emissions and
quality of life has led to advent of a new revision of SCM called sustainable supply chain management (SSCM)
(Carter & Roger, 2008; Kleindorfer, Singhal & Wassenhove 2005; Seuring & Muller, 2008; Teuteberg & Wittstruck,
2010; Brandenburg, Govindan, Sarkis & Seuring, 2015; Ahi & Searcy, 2015)
. SSCM is an extension of traditional
SCM to include environmental, social, ethical objectives in addition to classic economic goals (Wittstruck &
Teuteberg, 2011). In the presence of strict environmental regulations and high public awareness about sustainability
issues, many companies are now showing increasing attention to their sustainability performance and are attempting
to incorporate sustainability objectives into their supply chain procedures
(Zailani, Jeyaraman, Vengadasan &
Premkumar, 2012)
.
Review of SCM literature reveals that researches in this field are mostly concentrated on the supply chain (...truncated)