A Network Maturity Mapping Tool for Demand-Driven Supply Chain Management: A Case for the Public Healthcare Sector

Abstract

The healthcare supply chain is a complex adaptive ecosystem that facilitates the delivery of health products to the end patient in a cost-effective way. However, low forecast accuracy and high demand volatility in healthcare supply chains have resulted in an increase in stockouts, operational inefficiencies, poor health outcomes, and a significant increase in supply chain costs. To cope with these challenges, organisations are trying to adopt demand-driven supply chain management (DDSCM) operating practices which have been established in other sectors such as the telecommunications, fruit, and flower industries. However, previous studies have not considered these practices in the healthcare industry, and hence no methodologies exist that support the implementation of these practices in this context. Moreover, current studies present cases where the focus has been on improving and expanding individual organisational performance, but no supply chain network-level studies exist on the healthcare industry. Therefore, this paper provides a network-level analysis when addressing DDSCM in the healthcare industry. A grounded theory-based approach coupled with a conceptual framework analysis process was used to leverage a systematized literature review methodology with the development of a network maturity mapping tool for DDSCM which was validated in the public healthcare sector.