Search results

The main goal of this research is to analyze and assess the barriers to Digital Transformation (DT) of the healthcare Supply Chain (SC) in developing countries and evaluate strategies to overcome such barriers. The DT has been related not only to the development of SC performance but also to the expansion of its resilience capabilities in a healthcare setting to overcome the results of unavoidable risk events and return to its previous or new state, which has at least the same or better conditions, after the occurrence of an unpredicted event.

Assessment of the barriers and determination of the importance or effectiveness of proposed strategies to handle these barriers are conducted through a hybrid Multi-Criteria-Decision-Making method consisting of an Analytical Hierarchy Process and multi-attributive border approximation area comparison (MABAC) under picture fuzzy (PiF) environment.

Based on the outcomes of the research, the most important barriers for DT in healthcare SC functions were the organizational and technological issues, including Low support from top managers (O1), Lack of digital culture (O2), and Info/data safety and privacy (T4). To handle these barriers, the prior strategy was selected as “Making breakthroughs and incentives of top managers for the DT in the industry (ST3)”.

The study may be extended to include developed countries and or experts from developed countries. Through this, the study will be generalized to a global level. The most common qualitative criteria, which include subjectivity, are considered. The research may be enhanced by including quantitative criteria in the decision-making process. The barriers related to DT for healthcare SC were considered. Thus, the study may be detailed by looking at the problem in terms of operational failure and determining the digital technology that can overcome such operational failures. The precedence or importance of any barrier may fluctuate with the upgradation of technological tools and improvements.

In terms of practical contribution, this research provides real-world suggestions to facilitate digital transformation in their SCs. Specifically, this study increases the awareness of healthcare and other industries' managers about obstacles that prevents digital transformation in SC and provides managerial path to relieve the effects of barriers.

To the authors' best knowledge, this is the first study to examine barriers of DT required for the promotion of resilient healthcare SCs in this concept. In addition, no previous research applied PiFSs-based AHP and MABAC integration to assess barriers and develop strategies for the DT of healthcare SC. The findings may be references for governmental institutions, policymakers, decision-makers, and stakeholders to develop proper strategies for a successful DT in healthcare SC resilience and the healthcare industry.

Blood availability is critical for saving lives in various healthcare services. Ensuring blood availability can only be achieved through efficient management of the blood supply chain (BSC). A key component of the BSC is bloodmobiles, which are responsible for a significant portion of blood donation collections. The most crucial factor affecting the efficacy of bloodmobiles is their location selection. Therefore, detailed decision analyses are essential for the location selection of bloodmobiles. This study proposes a comprehensive approach to bloodmobile location selection for resilient BSCs.

This study provides a novel integration of the spherical fuzzy analytical hierarchy process (SF-AHP) and spherical fuzzy complex proportional assessment (SF-COPRAS) methodologies. In this framework, the criteria are weighted using SF-AHP. The alternatives are then evaluated using SF-COPRAS, employing criteria weights obtained from SF-AHP without defuzzification.

The results show that supply conditions and resilience are the most important criteria for a bloodmobile location selection. Additionally, the validation analyses confirm the stability of the solution.

This study presents several managerial implications that can aid mid-level managers in the BSC during the decision-making process for bloodmobile location selection. The critical factors revealed, along with their importance in choosing bloodmobile locations, serve as a comprehensive guide. Additionally, the framework proposed in this study offers decision-makers (DMs) an effective method for ranking potential bloodmobile locations.

This study presents the first application of multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) for bloodmobile location selection. In this manner, several aspects of bloodmobile location selection are considered for the first time in the existing literature. Furthermore, from the methodological aspect, this study provides a novel SF-AHP-integrated SF-COPRAS methodology.