Collaborative Management of Inventory in Australian Hospital Supply Chains: Practices And Issues

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop an understanding of the nature of collaborative arrangements that partners in Australian hospital supply chains use to manage inventories. Design/methodology/approach – A case study involving a supply chain network of ten healthcare organisations (three pharmaceutical manufacturers, two wholesalers/distributors and five public hospitals) was studied. Data included 40 semi‐structured interviews, site visits and examination of documents. Findings – This study highlights the existence of a variety of collaborative arrangements amongst supply chain partners such as the “Ward Box” system (a variant of the vender managed inventory system) between..