Track: Healthcare Systems

Abstract

Supply chain strategies in the healthcare industry are vital in today’s era. As there is an evident gap in the literature regarding this concept, the authors propose Lean and Agile as process strategies. Lean is a popular methodology that focuses on providing value to the intended customer by eliminating waste, ensuring continuous improvement, and reducing cycle time. Agile is a widely practiced project management method incorporated with software development characterized by the division of tasks into short phases of work and frequent reassessment and adaptation of plans. This exploratory paper aims to bridge the gap in the literature and construct a robust supply chain model that should be prepared for quicker response to uncertainties and reducing process cycle time by incorporating lean and agile as functional process parameters. It also focuses on overall performance improvement in each functional sub-divisions of the supply chain through this hybrid strategy, facilitates faster patient service, and provides a better service level to the patients by utilizing available resources efficiently. Recommendations have been suggested taking into account several criteria including patients’ reason to visit, seasonal effect, demography, waiting time for OPD etc. Healthcare is undoubtedly a vast area, and the agendas and policies are different correspondingly to geographic entities. This study was primarily based on the healthcare industry of Bangladesh. Further study can introduce a new possibility of applying this strategy to other regions as well.