Knowledge Agora



Scientific Article details

Title Material convergence issue in the pharmaceutical supply chain during a disease outbreak
ID_Doc 12824
Authors Patil, A; Madaan, J; Shardeo, V; Charan, P; Dwivedi, A
Title Material convergence issue in the pharmaceutical supply chain during a disease outbreak
Year 2022
Published International Journal Of Logistics Management, 33.0, 3
DOI 10.1108/IJLM-11-2020-0425
Abstract 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.
Author Keywords Sustainability; Simulation; Reverse logistics; Logistics strategy; Health care logistics
Index Keywords Index Keywords
Document Type Other
Open Access Open Access
Source Social Science Citation Index (SSCI)
EID WOS:000716417700001
WoS Category Management
Research Area Business & Economics
PDF
Similar atricles
Scroll