Green Supply Chain With ISO 14001 and 9001 in Australian Hospitals

NB: We do not resell your papers. Upon ordering, we do an original paper exclusively for you.

NB: All your data is kept safe from the public.

Table of Contents

Introduction
Field and Aims of Research
Significance of Research
Methodology and Research Techniques
Facilities and Equipment
Reference List

Introduction

Healthcare organizations in Australia and over the globe develop with a focus on social and environmental awareness. As a result, much attention is paid to developing effective supply chain management systems. In this context, green supply chain management is an environmentally friendly approach that consists of “green purchasing, green manufacturing/material management, green distribution/marketing and reverse logistic process” (Özkan, Akyürek & Toygar 2016, p. 289). Additional research on achieving green supply chains in Australian hospitals with the help of ISO 14001 and 9001 standards is required.

Field and Aims of Research

Supply chain management in Australian healthcare organizations is selected as an area for this research. Hospitals in Australia experience problems with implementing efficient supply chain strategies and current systems are characterized by complexity and high costs (Bhakoo, Singh & Sohal 2012). The development of green supply chain management based on ISO 14001 and 9001 standards can be viewed as an important step to support Australian hospitals. Thus, healthcare organizations can significantly benefit from applying green supply chain management because of reducing costs and environmental effects and achieving sustainability.

The aim of this research is to demonstrate how green supply chain management grounded on applying ISO 14001 and 9001 standards can contribute to Australian hospitals’ sustainability while discussing the problem of scarcities, identifying factors that lead to developing an effective supply chain management system, and determining concrete procedures to follow, as well as challenges to resolve. The research questions formulated to address this aim are the following ones:

What is the significance of implementing green supply chain management in Australian hospitals?
What are the main benefits of implementing a green supply chain management system in Australian hospitals and challenges connected with this change?

Significance of Research

This research is significant because it will provide answers to the set questions and contribute to the discussion of possibilities for Australian hospitals to implement green supply chain management based on ISO 14001 and 9001 standards. Although this approach to environmental management is viewed as beneficial, there are still certain issues associated with the implementation of these standards and principles in healthcare organizations (Nolan 2016; Özkan, Akyürek & Toygar 2016). This research will demonstrate how hospitals in Australia can implement the change, achieve sustainability, reduce resources, decrease negative environmental effects, and progress with reference to this approach managing supply chains (Shen 2013; Toke, Gupta & Dandekar 2010). As a result, the study findings will be applicable to the context of those Australian healthcare organizations that plan to follow ISO 14001 and ISO 9001 requirements.

Methodology and Research Techniques

Mixed methods will be used for this project. The reason is that both qualitative and quantitative data should be collected to address the aim of the study and answer the research questions (Creswell 2013; Leech et al. 2010). Such quantitative method as surveys based on using questionnaires will be applied to conduct statistical analysis and conclude regarding changes in supply chain management systems presented in the form of numbers (Thonon et al. 2015). The qualitative methodology based on conducting interviews and coding data will allow for receiving information regarding employees’ perceptions of the green supply chain management implementation with the help of ISO 14001 and ISO 9001 standards.

Facilities and Equipment

The study will be conducted at one Australian hospital located in Melbourne. Corporate documents and reports will be used for collecting data, and 15 employees will be invited to participate in the study while following the purposeful sampling approach. This approach is important to involve those participants who can provide the most relevant information regarding the study’s problem. The numerical data will be collected with the help of a survey and associated questionnaires on aspects, benefits, and challenges of using different supply chain management systems, as well as ISO 14001 and ISO 9001 standards. The qualitative data will be collected with the help of protocols for structured interviews that include open-ended questions.

Reference List

Bhakoo, V, Singh, P & Sohal, 2012, ‘Collaborative management of inventory in Australian hospital supply chains: practices and issues’, Supply Chain Management an International Journal, vol. 17, no. 2, pp. 217-230.

Creswell, J 2013, Research design: qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approach Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks, CA.

Leech, NL, Dellinger, AB, Brannagan, KB & Tanaka, H 2010, ‘Evaluating mixed research studies: a mixed-methods approach, Journal of Mixed Methods Research, vol. 4, no. 1, pp. 17-31.

Nolan, J 2016, ISO 14001 case study for hospitals: how to identify environmental aspects,weblog. Web.

Özkan, O, Akyürek, ÇE & Toygar, ŞA 2016, ‘Green supply chain method in healthcare institutions’, in Ş Erçetin (ed.), Chaos, complexity and leadership 2014. Springer proceedings in complexity. Springer, Cham, pp. 285-293.

Shen, ZJM 2013, ‘Green supply chain design and management, in F Chen, Y Liu & G Hua (eds), LTLGB 2012: proceedings of the international conference on low-carbon transportation and logistics, and green buildings, Springe, Beijing, pp. 5-7.

Thonon, F, Boulkedid, R, Teixeira, M, Gottot, S, Saghatchian, M & Alberti, C 2015, ‘Identifying potential indicators to measure the outcome of translational cancer research: a mixed-methods approach, Health Research Policy and Systems, v. 13, pp. 13-72.

Toke, LK, Gupta, RC & Dandekar, M 2010, Green supply chain management: critical research and practices. Web.

Click Here To Order Now!