An Integrated SCOR-MCDM Approach for Performance Evaluation in Pharmaceutical Distribution Network

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

Department of Management, Faculty of Management and Economics, University of Guilan, Rasht, Iran

10.22059/ijms.2025.390256.677389

Abstract

The pharmaceutical supply chain plays a critical role in ensuring the timely and safe delivery of medicines to pharmacies, hospitals, and patients. However, the increasing complexity caused by diverse demand, stringent transportation and storage requirements, and the need for precise logistics pose significant challenges. This study aims to improve performance evaluation by providing an integrated SCOR-MCDM framework, combining the supply chain operations reference model (SCOR) with multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) techniques. The novelty of this research lies in integrating the Decision Evaluation and Testing Laboratory (DEMATEL) method to identify causal relationships among performance criteria, with the Best-Worst Method (BWM) to prioritize them based on expert judgment in the pharmaceutical industry. The proposed approach provides a structured mechanism for evaluating the pharmaceutical distribution network, especially when real-time operational data is limited. The findings show that according to DEMATEL, "Supply stability," “Facility cost,” and “Information systems cost,” "Number of vehicles for distribution," “Delivery time,” and "Flexibility in product volume" have the greatest impact on the efficiency of the pharmaceutical distribution network. In addition, the results of the BWM also show that "Delivery time" is the most important from the expert’s point of view, which indicates that if decision makers want to improve the most important factor, namely “Delivery time,” they need to pay special attention to the factors affecting this factor to create an overall improvement. These insights provide practical implications for improving the efficiency and responsiveness of pharmaceutical supply chains. In addition, by addressing global challenges in pharmaceutical distribution network, the proposed model is also relevant beyond the Iranian context and can be effective in decision making in similar healthcare systems around the world.

Keywords

Main Subjects

References

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Interdisciplinary Journal of Management Studies
Volume 19, Issue 2
April 2026
Pages 335-366

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