Lean procurement practices and tools on procurement efficiency of pharmaceuticals: the case of Ethiopian Pharmaceutical Supply Services
| dc.contributor.author | Tesfaye Gebrewold, Miraf | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2024-10-29T16:09:38Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2024-10-29T16:09:38Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2024 | |
| dc.description.abstract | Pharmaceutical procurement is a critical undertaking in ensuring availability of essential medicine in the health care. In undertaking procurement, efficiency maximizing mechanisms are deemed important to ease the process together with managing costs. Among these, lean procurement practices and tools are notable as a means for customer value creation through eliminating waste. This study is designed with an aim of assessing the use, influence and implementation challenges of lean procurement practices and tools in pharmaceutical procurement function taking the case of Ethiopian Pharmaceutical Supply Services (EPSS). In this research, a positivism philosophy is applied alongside a deductive approach, building in existing lean theories, to address the research objectives. Quantitative data by using structured survey questionnaire was collected in cross-sectional time horizon from sixty-three procurement experts working in EPSS. The collected data was cleaned in Microsoft Excel and analysed using SPSS. Both descriptive and inferential statistical analysis were used to present the overall result. In the process all ethical procedures are duly abided and followed. The finding of this study showed, E-procurement, supplier relationship management, Kaizen, Just-in-time, total quality management, employee involvement and customer engagement are used in EPSS. A positive significant relationship is found between the lean procurement practices/tools and procurement efficiency as indicated by correlation coefficient (r=0.423, p< 0.001) and the simple linear regression coefficient (β=0.600, p=0.001) values obtained from the data analysis. Moreover, the study identified challenges affecting the lean implementation in procurement such as gaps in skills and expertise and lack of employee training about the tools/practices among others. As the finding demonstrated the utilization of the lean tools/practices in EPSS has brought positive influence in procurement efficiency. Hence, their use shall be promoted and the challenges hindering the proper implementation should be addressed systematically for optimum efficiency gain. Furthermore, to better understand lean in the context of pharmaceutical supply chain, future researches are recommended in the area to provide insight and enhance knowledge. | |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14136/203 | |
| dc.title | Lean procurement practices and tools on procurement efficiency of pharmaceuticals: the case of Ethiopian Pharmaceutical Supply Services | |
| dc.type | Thesis |