GUIDELINES FOR THE SUCCESSFUL MANAGEMENT OF HERBAL MEDICINE MANUFACTURING INDUSTRY

Abstract

Traditional Thai herbal medicine, once overlooked, is now gaining attention as Thailand addresses the challenges of an aging society. To tackle rising medical costs and boost the herbal medicine economy, the government has integrated it into the public health system. This research aimed to establish guidelines for successful management of the herbal medicine manufacturing industry, resulting in a structural equation model (SEM). A mixed-methods approach was adopted: qualitative research included in-depth interviews with 9 experts and focus group discussions with 11 experts, while quantitative research surveyed 500 herbal medicine manufacturers using questionnaires, analyzed through descriptive, inferential, and multivariate statistics. The study identified four key management guidelines in order of importance:1) Entrepreneurship (X̅ = 4.22) had the most important aspect on the controlled document provision by recording every step of production for verification. 2) Pharmaceutical Industry Process       (X̅ = 4.14) had the most important aspect of employing scientific instruments in the quality control process.  3) Cooperation network (X̅ = 4.07) showed the most important aspect of encouraging the cooperation between public sectors and the Thai Herbal Medicine Association to develop sustainable collaboration. 4) Market innovation and integrated communication (X̅ = 4.06) had the most important aspect of implementing standard certified symbols such as GMP, PIC/S, Halal, etc. attached onto the products. The hypothesis test revealed that businesses with a production value of 20 million baht or more annually prioritized these management guidelines differently than those with lower production values, with statistical significance at the 0.05 level. The SEM analysis demonstrated a strong fit to empirical data, meeting criteria with a chi-square of 0.079, a relative chi-square of 1.159, a confirmatory model fit index of 0.963, and a root mean square error of approximation of 0.018.