Recognizing critical drivers to mitigate supply chain disruptions in pharmaceutical industry during COVID-19

ABSTRACT

COVID-19 pandemic has significantly interrupted the global production and supply chain operation in all aspects of the consumer market. Along with other domains, the pharmaceutical industry has experienced its outbreaks on supply chain drivers impacting sustainable production and consumption patterns during the post-pandemic era. This motive stimulated the necessity for analyzing supply chain disruptions that severely affected logistics, procurement, production and distribution in the supply chain. Elimination of these disruptions in the supply chain may depend on many critical drivers which can accelerate the implementation of sustainability thus enhancing the performance of the supply chain in the context of an impending environment. In order to improve the resilience and performance of the supply chain, this study identifies and addresses those critical drivers and characterizes them based on their percentage implemented by Pareto analysis. Furthermore, a grey based Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) model is proposed to establish the causal relationships among these critical drivers. The findings of this work will demonstrate the structure and interrelationships between drivers and identify the most critical drivers for a long term sustainability of supply chain to eliminate disruptions in the supply chain. The findings can pave a way to business managers, policymakers and other stakeholders in numerous industries to identify critical drivers in attaining undisrupted business environment in the pandemic context. © IEOM Society International.