A hybrid decision-making framework for a supplier selection problem based on lean, agile, resilience, and green criteria: a case study of a pharmaceutical industry

Morteza Sheykhzadeh, Rohollah Ghasemi*, Hadi Rezaei Vandchali, Arash Sepehri, Seyed Ali Torabi

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleScientificpeer-review

2 Citations (Scopus)
197 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Due to the outbreak of COVID-19 around the globe in the last few years, the need for pharmaceutical supply chains is felt more than before. However, increasing uncertainties along with unpredictable demand for products led to disruptions in supply chains when receiving requests from retailers. These disruptions not only affected the economic aspect of supply chains but also caused shortages in hospitals and medical centers. Therefore, it has become significant for companies to select their suppliers to avoid disruptions in the case of the severity of infections. To address this issue in practice, this paper has been conducted based on a case study to address the role of lean, agile, resilience, and green (LARG) criteria in selecting the supplier in a pharmaceutical supply chain and compare the results obtained before and after the prevalence of COVID-19. The main purpose of this study is to determine and evaluate different indicators within the LARG concept to avoid disruptions when selecting suppliers. Besides, the significance of these criteria before and after the pandemic condition is addressed. Due to addressing multiple aspects of the problem, a hybrid fuzzy multi-attribute decision-making (MADM) approach is adopted for this elaboration when the four LARG criteria are integrated with eighteen supplier selection sub-criteria. To calculate the impact of each criterion (or sub-criteria), a fuzzy best–worst method (BWM) along with an additive ratio assessment (ARAS) is employed to propose a supplier ranking for a distributor of a pharmaceutical supply chain. The developed model is novel as LARG criteria in the context of supplier selection have not been studied to address the disruptions in the pharmaceutical supply chain. This is significant because it gives insight to both retailers and suppliers to emphasize the correct criteria, especially in the pandemic or related disrupting conditions. The results demonstrated that quality, collaboration, safety stock, and environmental criteria weigh the highest before the pandemic, while just-in-time delivery, lead time, safety stock, and environmental criteria weigh the highest after the pandemic. This study demonstrates that developing a supplier selection approach that meets the demand in a short time and recommends suppliers to hold surplus inventory helps the healthcare systems better respond to the market needs.

Original languageEnglish
Number of pages28
JournalEnvironment, Development and Sustainability
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2024

Bibliographical note

Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository ‘You share, we take care!’ – Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care
Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public.

Keywords

  • Fuzzy multi-attribute decision-making
  • LARG supply chain
  • Pharmaceutical supply chains
  • Supplier selection

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