Search results

The Covid-19 pandemic generated significant changes in the operating methods of hospital logistics departments. The objective of this research is to understand how these changes took place, what collaboration mechanisms were developed with clinical authorities and, to what extent, logistics and clinical care activities should be decoupled to maximize each area's contribution?

The case study is selected to investigate practices implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic in hospitals in Canada. The pandemic presented an opportunity to contrast practices implemented in response to this crisis with those historically used in this environment.

The strategy of decoupling logistical tasks of an operational nature from clinical activities is well-founded and helps free clinical staff from tasks for which they are not trained. However, the decoupling of operational tasks should be combined with an integration of the clinical information flow to the logistics hub players. With this clinical information, the logistics hub can generate its full potential enabling better inventory management decisions to be made.

The concept of decoupling is studied to identify configurations that offer the best benefits for clinical staff.

Words like “marriage,” “mutual trust” and “partnership” are often used to describe buyer‐supplier relationships in a Just‐in‐Time environment. Using a transaction cost economics framework, we contend that this structure is and will continue to be the most efficient arrangement for both parties, as long as the balance of power is maintained. However, as the relationship evolves over time, the balance of power can shift and “cooperation” can turn into abuse.

Due to the diversity of its players, the American healthcare sector has experimented with different types of integrated supply chain management systems for medical supplies. In the 1980s, US distributors were offering customers the so‐called stockless replenishment method, whereby the distributor picks and packs products according to the particular needs of each patient care unit and, in most cases, delivers them directly. By the late 1990s, stockless agreements had run out of steam, as distributors sought to optimize the balance between their efforts expended in hospital replenishment and the hospitals’ inventory savings. Among the various reflections and initiatives aimed at finding such a new balance, we focused on the experience of a Quebec (Canada) hospital adopting a hybrid version of the stockless system, under which the distributor supplied high‐volume products for the patient care unit in case quantities, leaving the institution’s central stores to break down bulk purchases of low‐volume products into point‐of‐use format (eaches). The study reveals marginal benefits from the hybrid method for both the institution and the distributor. However, it also reveals the importance of the manufacturer’s role with respect to packing formats, and demonstrates that the rearrangement of storage areas can generate substantial savings, opening the way to means for improving the healthcare sector supply chain.

In industrial management, the 1980s marked the end of the twentieth century, an epoch dominated by US manufacturers, the alleged masters of mass production. This system has now been outstripped in several dynamic sectors by flexible/agile production. Increases in the pace of technological progress, training and aspirations have made the modern context so dynamic that firms which manage to harness the creativity and initiative of a good part of their workforce have an advantage over those that can only count on the input of their experts and managers. In sectors undergoing relatively broad and rapid change, twenty‐first century firms must adopt a more flexible and innovative type of organization to achieve manufacturing excellence.

This chapter introduces the Person-in-Environment (PIE) framework, a research design and a nationwide empirical study, developed by the author, to measure the relative impacts of socio-structural and personal factors on individual-level information behaviours (IB) and outcomes. The IB field needs to tackle two questions: (1) In a particular situation, how much of an individual's IB is influenced by personal characteristics? and (2) How much of this behaviour is shaped by one's environment, such as socio-structural barriers? PIE is a beginning effort to address this agency–structure debate, which is a topic that confronts many social scientists. This chapter first outlines IB research relevant to agency–structure integration. It then presents six principles of the PIE framework. Personal characteristics (e.g. cognitive and affective factors) and socio-structural factors (e.g. information resources distribution) are conceptualised as interrelated. Thus, these need to be tested simultaneously. Previously, it was difficult to link individual- and societal-level datasets because their units of observation often vary. To overcome these methodological challenges, this author purposed a research design that employs secondary analysis, geographic information systems techniques and structural equation modelling. An empirical study of the library usage by 13,000 American 12th graders is presented to demonstrate PIE's applicability. Discussions on the future directions of PIE studies conclude the chapter. The PIE framework can contribute to conceptual and methodological development in IB research. It also offers scholars and policymakers a way to empirically assess the contributions of information services on an individual's life, while taking personal differences into account.