International Journal of Industrial Engineering & Production Research

Based on RBV Theory The study investigated the effect of Supply Chain integration (SCI) on medical sector Operational Performance (OP).  the data were collected from 307 managers out of 330 managers, by questionnaire, which adopted from previous studies and refined through experts’ interviews and the panel of judge. Statistical techniques such as descriptive statistics, correlation, and SEM were employed. The results of the study indicated a positive significant relationship between SCI and medical sector OP. The results also indicated that the managers in Medical Sector were almost similar in their preference of the customer integration and internal integration indicators. Furthermore, empirical results indicated that the interactions between the two components of SCI effect strongly on and OP. Results indicated that the internal integration was having the highest effect on OP, followed by customer.
The study shows Theoretical and Practical implications. Theoretically the SCI require higher level of internal integration. Thus, for an institution to support the participation of partners it must create a suitable internal integration. Practically the full collaboration of participation and they integrate the firm internally and externally that should lead to high performance. Moreover, the study provided a suggestion for future research.
 
Key Words: Supply Chain Integration (SCI), Internal Integration (II), Customer Integration (CI), Operational Performance (OP), (Medical Sector).

Increasing competition due to globalization, product diversity and technological breakthroughs stimulate independent firms to collaborate in a supply chain that allows gaining the mutual benefits. This requires a collective coordination framework and migration path to synchronize and to integrate the information systems and also organizational activities of the supply chain partners. However, existing research in supply chain integration has paid little attention in identifying and developing a migration path to know the present level of supply chain among the supply chain partners. Hence, the objective of this paper is to develop a framework for supply chain integration. In the proposed research, the informational, organizational and information technology integration is operationalized for the development of Supply Chain Integration framework for manufacturing industries. Further, this paper includes a comprehensive understanding of supply chain integration in general and specifically organizational, informational and IT integration. The developed framework for supply chain integration is validated by a pilot study and it helps the organizations to know the present level and provides a migration path to move to the next level of supply chain integration. This paper will add onto the contribution of authors who have ventured study in the area of supply chain integration.