Benchmarking health-care supply chain by implementing Industry 4.0: a fuzzy-AHP-DEMATEL approach

Abstract

PurposeWith the rising needs of health-care (HC) services during the health outbreaks, it is essential to upgrade the existing HC delivery infrastructure. The study aims to prioritize and highlight the interrelationships among the key factors of the smart health-care supply chain (HCSC) by implementing the concept of Industry 4.0.Design/methodology/approachThe key factors of implementing Industry 4.0 in HCSC have been identified through extensive literature review and stakeholders' opinions. To achieve the abovementioned objectives, the present study proposed hybrid multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) tools, namely, the fuzzy-analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and fuzzy- decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL). The Fuzzy-AHP prioritized the factors of implementing Industry 4.0 in HCSC, while the cause–effect relationships among the factors have been explored using fuzzy-DEMATEL.FindingsThe results of the study indicated that HC logistics management (HCLM) is the most prioritized factor of implementing Industry 4.0 in HCSC, followed by the integrated HCSC, then sustainable HCSC practices, HCSC innovation and technological aspects, HCSC institutional perspectives, HCSC competitiveness, social aspects and economic factors of HCSC. The cause–effect analysis has highlighted integrated HCSC, HCLM, HCSC competitiveness and social aspects as the cause group factors and they are the critical success parameters for implementing Industry 4.0 in the HCSC.Practical implicationsThe results of the study can be useful for policymakers, humanitarian organizations, health administrators and other decision makers considering the smartening of HCSC to enhance the operational performance of health facilities.Originality/valueThis is one of the few studies to have been conducted so far in which the subfactors of HCSC implementing Industry 4.0 have been identified and analyzed using the fuzzy-AHP and fuzzy-DEMATEL hybrid approach.

An integrated framework for analysing performance indicators of Indian microfinance institutions: a multi-stakeholder perspective

“…Due to the versatile nature of DEMATEL, it has got several applications in heterogeneous disciplines, viz. portfolio selection (Ho et al, 2011), cost-benefit analysis related to operation research (Titiyal et al, 2019;Mishra et al, 2017), risk management (Ramesh et al, 2019;Tarei et al, 2018) and healthcare operations (Hossain and Thakur, 2020). In the current research DEMATEL is used to establish the interrelationship between various MFI's performance dimensions, and segregate them into cause and effect groups, and visualise the inter-relationship in the form of a digraph (network relationship map).…”

Integrated reverse supply chain model for food waste based on industry 4.0 revolutions

“…In another research, Hossain and Thakur (2021) oncluded that logistics management in the health sector could increase performance. As in the present study, the determining factors have reached their optimal state.…”

The Role of Integral Model of Critical Infrastructure Safety in Industry 4.0

“…al., 2020Queiroz et. al., , p. 1076 In this context, Industry 4.0 and the technologies enabling its implementation may in the future be included in the CI category, on which the proper functioning of the economy, society, and public administration will depend (Hossain and Thakur, 2020). It is indicated by the actions of, among others, the governments of Germany and China.…”