Service modularity in managing healthcare logistics

Leagility in the healthcare research: a systematic review

BACKGROUND

Expenditure of healthcare services has been growing over the past decades. Lean and agile are two popular paradigms that could potentially contain cost and improve proficiency of the healthcare system. However no systematic review was found on leagilty in the healthcare research. This study aims at synthesizing the extant literature of leagility in the healthcare area to consolidate its potential and identify research gaps for future study in the field.

METHODS

A systematic literature review is conducted following the PRISMA checklist approach. Studies were searched in multiple databases. The selection of articles was executed by dual-scanning of two researchers to ensure quality of data and relevance to the topic. Scientific articles published between January 1999 and November 2023 concerning leagile healthcare are analysed using Microsoft Excel and VOSviewer (version 1.6.18).

RESULTS

Out of 270 articles identified from the inclusion and exclusion criteria, 24 were included in the review. A total of 11 target areas were identified in leagility applications in healthcare. Success and limiting factors of leagile healthcare were classified into macro and micro aspects and further categorized into six dimensions: policy, organization, human resources, marketing, operation management and technology. Moreover, four research gaps were revealed and suggestions were provided for future study.

CONCLUSION

Leagility in the healthcare context is still being in its infancy. Few empirical validation was found in leagile healthcare literature. Further exploration into the application of theory in various sectors under the scope of healthcare is appealed for. Standardization and modularization, leadership support, skillfulness of professionals and staff training are the factors most frequently mentioned for a successful implementation of leagility in the healthcare sector.

Mapping research on healthcare operations and supply chain management: a topic modelling-based literature review

The literature on healthcare operations and supply chain management has seen unprecedented growth over the past two decades. This paper seeks to advance the body of knowledge on this topic by utilising a topic modelling-based literature review to identify the core topics, examine their dynamic changes, and identify opportunities for further research in the area. Based on an analysis of 571 articles published until 25 January 2022, we identify numerous popular topics of research in the area, including patient waiting time, COVID-19 pandemic, Industry 4.0 technologies, sustainability, risk and resilience, climate change, circular economy, humanitarian logistics, behavioural operations, service-ecosystem, and knowledge management. We reviewed current literature around each topic and offered insights into what aspects of each topic have been studied and what are the recent developments and opportunities for more impactful future research. Doing so, this review help advance the contemporary scholarship on healthcare operations and supply chain management and offers resonant insights for researchers, research students, journal editors, and policymakers in the field.

An in-depth case study of a modular service delivery system in a logistics context

Purpose

The objective of this work is to empirically investigate the design of a service delivery system that supports the provision of modular service logistics offerings.

Design/methodology/approach

An in-depth single-case study relying on interview data and extensive documentary evidence is carried out in the business-to-business (B2B) logistics sector. Three main analytical techniques are used to make sense of the qualitative data: thematic analysis, process mapping and the application of modular operators.

Findings

A modular service delivery system comprises three types of processes that collectively deliver modular offerings. The platform consists of core processes that enable the collection, transport and delivery of physical items for all offerings (modular and non-modular). Dedicated modular processes are mandatory and exclusive to individual modular offerings. Optional modular processes are shared across several modular offerings. Interfaces regulate physical (e.g. parcels or parts) and information (e.g. booking data) inputs provided by the customer in order to control the interdependencies within these different process types.

Practical implications

The identification of three process types and their interdependencies provides detailed insights into how managers can design modular logistics services that benefit from economies of scale and meet increasingly variable customer requirements. The importance of well-designed interfaces among the customers, the service offering and the service delivery system is highlighted.

Originality/value

This study extends previous modularity studies in service logistics. It is the first study to apply modular operators to determine the presence of modularity in the service delivery system and to establish the role of different process types in enabling modularity in the service delivery system.

A Hierarchical Solution Approach for Occupational Health and Safety Inspectors' Task Assignment Problem

BACKGROUND

Occupational health and safety (OHS) is a significant interest of all governments to prevent workplace hazards. Although appropriate legislation and regulations are essentials for the protection of workers, they are solely not enough. Application of them in practice should be secured by an efficient inspection system. Fundamental components of an inspection system are inspectors and their audit tasks. Maintaining the fair balanced task assignment among inspectors strictly enhances the efficiency of the overall system.

METHODS

This study proposes a two-phased goal programming approach for OHS inspectors' task assignments and presents a case study.

RESULTS

The solution approach gives the balanced assignment of inspectors to the workplaces in different cities of the country in the planning period. The obtained schedule takes into account the distances covered by the work places and the number of the workplaces' employees to be audited and pays attention to the human factors by considering the preferences of the inspectors. The comparisons between the obtained optimal schedule and the implemented one that is produced manually show that the approach not only maintains the technical requirements of the problem, but also provides social and physical balance to the task assignment.

CONCLUSION

Both the approach and the application study are expected to offer fruitful inspirations in the area of safety management and policy and they provide a good guide for social policy and organizational aspects in the field of OHS inspectors' task assignment.

The impact of counterfeit risk management on healthcare supply chain performance: an empirical analysis

Purpose

This study develops and tests a model exploring the relationship between supply chain (SC) counterfeit risk management and performance in the healthcare supply chain (HCSC).

Design/methodology/approach

In the proposed theoretical model, HCSC counterfeit risk management is characterized by HCSC counterfeit risk orientation (HCRO), HCSC counterfeit risk mitigation (HCRM) and HCSC risk management integration (HRMI), while performance is represented by healthcare logistics performance (HLP) and healthcare organization overall performance (HOP). Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) and survey data from 55 HCSC managers are used to test the research hypotheses.

Findings

HCRO has a significant positive effect on HCRM, while HCRM has a positive impact on HRMI. With respect to HLP, HCRM has a nonsignificant effect, while HRMI has a significant impact, thus confirming the important mediating role of HRMI. Finally, HLP has a significant positive effect on the overall performance of healthcare organizations.

Research limitations/implications

All study participants were from the United States, limiting the generalizability of the study findings to different countries or regions. The sample size employed in the study did not allow the authors to distinguish among the different types of healthcare organizations.

Originality/value

This study delineates between a healthcare organization's philosophy toward counterfeiting risks vs actions taken to eliminate or reduce the impact of counterfeiting on the HCSC. By offering firm-level guidance for managers, this study informs healthcare organizations about addressing the challenge of counterfeiting in the HCSC.

Identifying and categorising knowledge reuse activities in electronic repositories

Purpose

Knowledge reuse using electronic repositories, while increasingly important, requires more thorough analysis. Service modularity has been recently applied in services research but has not been integrated into knowledge reuse studies. The purpose of this paper is to draw on both service modularity and knowledge reuse to develop and validate a framework that categorises forms of packaged knowledge in an electronic repository.

Design/methodology/approach

Drawing on knowledge reuse and service modularity research, a model is proposed. The model is empirically tested using a case study research design.

Findings

This research highlighted the value of including both context and process as key dimensions when packaging service knowledge for reuse. This study identifies knowledge types present in modular solutions and how they were configured and reconfigured in the knowledge repository. This research identified five ways modularised services were leveraged. In addition to the traditional scale and stretch approaches, already present, but conflated, in the service literature, three other configurations were identified; shrink, separate and segment.

Research limitations/implications

The findings are based on a single empirical case study which may limit the generalisability of the findings. There is a need for additional research to further validate the model in additional contexts.

Practical implications

This study provides managers with empirical examples of how a modular repository was used in practice and outlines five ways of recombining contextual and processual elements to enable service codification and reuse. It has implications for how knowledge is decomposed and recombined in repositories, suggesting an explicit separation of context and process knowledge while developing modular elements within both.

Originality/value

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this is the first study that explicitly uses context and process as dimensions and draws on service modularity to understand types of knowledge reuse in electronic repositories. In doing so, it adds value by developing and validating a model that identifies five types of reuse.

Energy efficiency in logistics through service modularity: the case of household waste

Purpose

Service modularity promotes efficiency at the provider end of the supply chain and customisation at the customer end. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how logistics service modularity contributes to sustainable development through the means of energy efficiency. This is analysed in the context of logistics services for household waste collection.

Design/methodology/approach

A single case study methodology with embedded units is adopted where semi-structured interviews were conducted with a waste service provider (WSP) and buyers (municipalities) in Sweden, focussing on five types of logistics services for waste collection: collection of food and residual waste at apartments and one-family houses, as well as collection of gardening waste. Service modules are identified and analysed by blueprinting the service.

Findings

The findings show different service modules – standardised or customised – and their contribution to sustainable development operationalised through energy efficiency. Principles for an energy-centric service design are proposed.

Research limitations/implications

The research is limited to Swedish household waste collection setting. Promising efficiency through standardisation, logistics service modularity has a potential to improve energy efficiency as well. This neglected link between sustainability and service modularity offers fruitful research avenues.

Practical implications

This research is of practical relevance to waste logistics service providers and the municipality by suggesting principles for energy-centric service design. The service blueprint enables using logistics service modularity for improving energy efficiency in different logistics service settings.

Originality/value

This research incorporates an environmentally sustainable development perspective into logistics service modularity and contributes to the literature by exploring how energy efficiency is improved by modular design of logistics services. Furthermore, the study is one of the first to use service blueprinting to analyse logistics service modularity, providing a methodological contribution to that field in general and logistics in particular.