The research delineates the risks within the supply chain that impede firms from achieving optimal value-added ratios. A comprehensive inventory of medical equipment crucial to healthcare is identified, and manufacturing and order fulfilment durations are ascertained through non-participatory observation. Employing these durations, the value-added ratio is computed for each piece of medical equipment to assess the firms’ performance. The study divulges that the average value-added ratio for hospital laboratory equipment is alarmingly low, signifying the prevalence of non-value-added activities resulting in augmented costs and protracted turnaround times. Furthermore, hospital diagnostic and surgical equipment, although exhibiting higher value-added ratios in comparison with laboratory equipment, still evince an average value-added ratio below fifty per cent, underscoring that over half of the activities along this supply chain are non-value-added. These findings accentuate the necessity of addressing these issues to bolster the value addition within the Indian medical equipment supply chain.