Exploration and prioritization of just in time enablers for sustainable health care: an integrated GRA-Fuzzy TOPSIS application

Purpose: The increased health-care costs, improved service quality and sustainability-oriented customer demand have forced the health-care sector to relook their current process. The present work deals with the identification, analysis and prioritization of just in time (JIT) enablers in the health-care sector. Design/methodology/approach: JIT leads to waste reduction, improves productivity and provides high-quality patient care. The practical implementation of JIT depends on vital factors known as enablers. The enablers have been found through the comprehensive literature review and prioritized using responses from different health-care facilities of the national capital region of India. Grey relational analysis (GRA) has been used in the present study to rank enablers and ranks were further validated using the fuzzy technique for order of preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) and sensitivity analysis. Findings: It has been found that top management support, teamwork and real-time information sharing are the most significant enablers of JIT in health care with grey relational grades 0.956, 0.832 and 0.718, respectively. The corresponding closeness coefficients of the fuzzy TOPSIS for the enablers were found as 0.875, 0.802 and 0.688, respectively. The findings of the present research work will facilitate the health-care organizations to implement a comprehensive JIT approach that further leads to improved patient care at a low cost. Originality/value: The present study is unique in terms of the exploration of the readiness measures or enablers of JIT using GRA and fuzzy TOPSIS. The findings of the present research work will facilitate the health-care organizations to optimize their resources for better patient care.