Multiproduct Humanitarian Healthcare Supply Chains: A Network Modeling and Computational Framework

Abstract

In this paper, we develop a model for supply chain network design in the case of multiple products, with particular relevance to humanitarian healthcare. The model allows for the determination of the optimal capacities of supply chain network activities in the form of manufacturing, storage, and distribution, as well as the optimal multiple product flows, and identifies at what minimal total cost the demands for the products at the various points are achievable. The model may be utilized for the determination of the optimal allocation of resources for multiple vaccine and medicine production, storage, and distribution to points of need in the case of disasters, epidemics, or pandemics. The model is sufficiently general to handle supply chain network design, as well as redesign, and can be used by organizations to quantify the humanitarian healthcare supply chain costs in a transparent way to stakeholders, including governments and funding agencies.

Keywords: humanitarian supply chains, multiproduct supply chains, network design / redesign, healthcare, vaccine production, medicine production, pharmaceuticals