Driving Efficiency and Resilience: The Impact of Lean Practices on Pharmaceutical Supply Chains in Pakistan

Abstract

This study explores the use of Lean practices to improve the operations of the pharmaceutical supply chain in a developing country of Pakistan where there is substantial empirical lean supply chain research gap. The study examines the relationships between these four key Lean tools (Just-in-Time (JIT), Value Stream Mapping (VSM), 5S Workplace Organization, and Kaizen Continuous Improvement), and three dimensions of supply chain performance (efficiency, cost reduction, and service quality). A quantitative cross-sectional survey design was used and structured questionnaire was used to gather data from 237 professionals of Pharmaceutical Supply Chain in major pharmaceutical hubs of Pakistan. Descriptive statistics, Cronbach's α reliability analysis, Pearson correlation analysis and multiple regression analysis in the program IBM SPSS v26.0 were used for data analysis. The empirical results supported all five research hypotheses as follows: JIT practices positively predicted supply chain efficiency (β = .362, p < .001); VSM had the highest positive effect on cost reduction (β = .341, p < .001); 5S positively predicted service quality (β = .298, p < .001); Kaizen had the strongest positive effect on overall supply chain optimization (β = .311, p < .001); and a composite Lean Implementation Index explained 51.0% of the variance in overall supply chain performance (β = .714, p < .001). The findings in this study further advanced Lean Thinking Theory and SCOR and Resource Based View (RBV) in order to provide the first systematic empirical evidence of Lean effectiveness in the Pakistani pharmaceutical supply chains which are under-researched in developing economy. The research provides a significant amount of theories and practical recommendations for supply chain practitioners and policy-makers to modernize Pakistan's pharmaceutical industry.