A multi-criteria decision making model for readiness assessment of vendor managed inventory in healthcare

Abstract

The use of vendor managed inventory (VMI) approach has been increasingly implemented in recent years, especially in the healthcare industry. It causes by cost-ineffectiveness and uncertain information both qualitative and quantitative data. To deal with these obstacles, a hybrid multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) method for VMI assessment is proposed in this article. This integrated MCDM comprises DEMATEL-based analytic network process (DANP) method in order to investigate the relationship among readiness criteria, and to construct the complex evaluation system. Finally, the modified VIKOR is used to evaluate the criteria that influence the adoption of VMI. Based on empirical case study for hospitals in Thailand, the result shows that provincial hospital has the highest potential readiness in VMI adoption, followed by university hospital and private hospital. Besides, the priority criteria improvements of each hospital are quite different, which the findings should assist hospital managers to pay an attention to the readiness assessment before VMI adoption.