Title: The APP strategies selected in SCM of the hospital

Authors: Hung-Chang Liao, Yan-Kwang Chen, Hsu-Hwa Chang

Addresses: Department of Health Services Administration, Chung-Shan Medical University; Department of Medical Education, Chung-Shan Medical University Hospital, No. 110, Sec. 1, Jian-Koa N. Road, Taichung, Taiwan. ' Department of Logistics Engineering and Management, National Taichung Institute of Technology, 129 Sanmin Road, Sec. 3, Taichung, Taiwan. ' Department of Business Administration, National Taipei College of Business, No. 321, Sec. 1, Chi-Nan Road, Taipei, Taiwan.

Abstract: This paper uses a real case study of Taiwan|s Middle Alliance of Department of Health (TMADH) to explore the selection of suitable aggregate production planning (APP) strategies in hospital supply chain management (SCM). A simulation method was used to simulate the six different APP|s strategies to further evaluate the results of multiple objectives, including total cost (TC), average service level (SL) and average changes in production rate (PR). This paper uses the TOPSIS and fuzzy linguistic methods to compare the different weights of different objectives to obtain the optimal APP strategy selection sequence for decision-makers in hospital SCM. The results of this study show that decision-makers only need to apply historical data in APP strategy planning to obtain the superior solution; in other words, decreasing the complexity of the decision process in selecting an APP strategy and SCM production policy which is the primary contribution of this paper.

Keywords: aggregate production planning; APP; supply chain management; hospital supply chains; hospital SCM; TOPSIS; multiattribute decision making; MADM; Taiwan; healthcare supply chains; total cost; service levels; production rate; fuzzy linguistics.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSTM.2011.040381

International Journal of Services Technology and Management, 2011 Vol.15 No.3/4, pp.298 - 313

Received: 07 Feb 2009
Accepted: 09 Oct 2009
Published online: 21 Feb 2015 *

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