Purpose: The recent pandemic caused by coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has significantly impacted the operational performances of pharmaceutical supply chains (SCs), especially in emerging economies that are critically vulnerable due to their inadequate resources. Finding the possible barriers that continue to impede the sustainable performance of SCs in the post-COVID-19 era has become essential. This study aims to investigate and analyze the barriers to achieving sustainability in the pharmaceutical SC of an emerging economy in a bid to help decision-makers recognize the most influential barriers.Design/methodology/approach: To achieve the goals, two decision-making tools are integrated to analyze the most critical barriers: interpretive structural modeling (ISM) and the matrix of cross-impact multiplications applied to classification (MICMAC). In contrast to other multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) approaches, ISM develops a hierarchical decision tool for decision-makers and cluster analysis of the barriers using the MICMAC method based on their driving and dependency powers.Findings: The findings reveal that the major barriers are in a four-level hierarchical relationship where “Insufficient SC strategic plans to ensure agility during crisis” acts as the most critical barrier, followed by “Poor information structure among SC contributors,” and “Inadequate risk management policy under pandemic.” Finally, the MICMAC analysis validates the findings from the ISM approach.Originality/value: This study provides meaningful insights into barriers to achieving sustainability in pharmaceutical SCs in the post-COVID-19 era. The study can help pharmaceutical SC practitioners to better understand what can go wrong in post-COVID-19, and develop actionable strategies to ensure sustainability and resilience in practitioners' SCs.

Background: Retail chains aim to maintain a competitive advantage by ensuring product availability and fulfilling customer demand on-time. However, inefficient scheduling and vehicle routing from the distribution center may cause delivery delays and, thus, stock-outs on the store shelves. Therefore, optimization of vehicle routing can play a vital role in fulfilling customer demand. Methods: In this research, a case study is formulated for a chain of retail stores in Dhaka City, Bangladesh. Orders from various stores are combined, grouped, and scheduled for Region-1 and Region-2 of Dhaka City. The ‘vehicle routing add-on’ feature of Google Sheets is used for scheduling and navigation. An android application, Intelligent Route Optimizer, is developed using the shortest path first algorithm based on the Dijkstra algorithm. The vehicle navigation scheme is programmed to change the direction according to the shortest possible path in the google map generated by the intelligent routing optimizer. Results: With the application, the improvement of optimization results is evident from the reductions of traveled distance (8.1% and 12.2%) and time (20.2% and 15.0%) in Region-1 and Region-2, respectively. Conclusions: A smartphone-based application is developed to improve the distribution plan. It can be utilized for an intelligent vehicle routing system to respond to real-time traffic; hence, the overall replenishment process will be improved.

Plastic waste causes severe environmental impacts worldwide and threatens the lives of all creatures. In the medical field, most of the equipment, especially personal protective equipment (PPE), is made from single-use plastic. During COVID-19, the usage of PPE has increased, and is disposed of in landfills after being used once. Worldwide, millions of tons of waste syringes are generated from COVID-19 vaccination. A practical alternative to utilizing this waste is recycling it to reinforce building materials. This research introduces an approach to using COVID-19 syringe plastic waste to reinforce building material as composite concrete. Reinforced fiber polymer (FRP) concrete materials were used to mold cylindrical specimens, which underwent mechanical tests for mechanical properties. This study used four compositions with 0%, 5%, 10%, and 15% of FRP to create cylindrical samples for optimum results. Sequential mechanical tests were carried out on the created samples. These specimens were cured for a long period to obtain water absorption capability. After several investigations, the highest tensile and compressive strengths, approximately 2.0 MPa and 10.5 MPa, were found for the 5% FRP composition samples. From the curing test, the lowest water absorbability of around 5% was found for the 5% FRP composition samples.

The leather tanning industry is essential to Bangladesh's economy, significantly boosting employment and economic growth in the country. More than a million Bangladeshis work in this sector, which provides chances for both skilled and unskilled labor.But the chemical management component of tanneries carries inherent hazards, hence existing approaches need to be reassessed and redesigned. However, there are significant obstacles to improving the tanneries' working conditions and productivity in the chemical management part. To develop productivity and safety, lean is an option that needs to be explored more widely in the tannery context. Through interviews with industry expertsand a careful evaluation of the body of current literature, this study has identified potential barriers to starting lean practices in the chemical management of the production floorAfter the literature review, the barriers are analyzed using the MCDM tool to rank them according to the collected data. The barriers will be ranked using the Best Worst method. In order to overcome these significant obstacles and enable the successful adoption of lean techniques for sustainable chemical management in Bangladeshi leather tanning, policymakers, tannery owners, and development organizations can benefit significantly from the information provided by this study.

The worldwide leather tanning industry is crucial in global trade, making around US$50 billion in sales. However, its fast growth has caused significant environmental issues, prompting a careful reconsideration of the industry's operation. Tanneries, often situated near the water, highlight the difficulty of balancing making money with caring for the environment. Having good plans for managing waste is crucial to deal with these issues. Leather Working Group (LWG) certification is a way to transform the industry. Getting LWG certification allows tanneries to sell their products to the EU and other places that care about the environment. However, there are challenges for tanneries trying to get this certification. This study uses a Multi-Criteria Decision-Making tool to prioritize these challenges systematically. By focusing on these obstacles, the research aims to help the industry move towards more sustainable practices, ensuring it stays competitive globally while taking care of the environment.

Bangladesh's ready-made garment (RMG) sector has substantial challenges in the areas of efficiency, traceability, and transparency across its intricate logistics and supply chain operations. This study investigates the use of blockchain technology, in order to address these issues, particularly the Hyperledger Fabric framework, which provides a transparent, tamper-proof, and decentralized platform for monitoring the flow of products from manufacturing to distribution. This work demonstrates the advantages of blockchain over traditional systems through a performance analysis based on metrics such as latency, throughput, and security vulnerabilities. These benefits include enhanced data integrity, process optimization through smart contracts, and stakeholder trust. A more resilient and scalable RMG supply chain can result from the incorporation of blockchain and its capacity to accelerate transportation, minimization of fraud, and drastically reduce third-party audit expenditures. By developing a model for implementing blockchain technology into logistics and supply chains, particularly in emerging markets like Bangladesh, this study broadens our comprehension of the non-financial aftereffects of the technology known as blockchain.