Research opportunities in preparing supply chains of essential goods for future pandemics

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic severely tested the resilience and robustness of supply chains for medically critical items and various common household goods. Severe and prolonged shortages of personal protective equipment (PPE) and ventilators in the United States have revealed vulnerabilities in the supply chains of such essential products in a time of need. Consequently, corporations have felt public pressure to rethink their supply chains. We begin this paper by examining the underlying causes of the prolonged shortages of critical products in the US as well as government’s and some companies’ initial response. Drawing from the lessons learned from the COVID pandemic, we propose a research agenda and opportunities to develop responsive supply chains to fight future pandemics. These opportunities revolve around measures that are intended to improve the supply chain responsiveness of essential products to combat future pandemics and other major public health emergencies.

KEYWORDS:

• Pandemic
• global supply chains
• resilience
• industry commons
• preparedness

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 The Strategic National Stockpile is a massive inventory-based approach for demand surges caused by public health emergencies. Suppose a community experienced a large-scale public health incident in which the disease or agent is unknown. In that case, the intent is to send a broad range of pharmaceuticals and medical supplies from strategically located warehouses throughout the US in 50-ton containers to any state within 12 h of the federal deployment decision.

2 Deloitte (2020). Two in three procurement leaders have limited or no visibility beyond tier one of their supply chain. Accessed https://www2.deloitte.com/uk/en/pages/press-releases/articles/procurement-leaders-have-limited-o-no-visibility.html on 7 Oct. 2020. In the same vein, Choi, Rogers, and Vakil (2020) reported that, based on a survey by Reslinic in late January and early February after the Covid-19 outbreak in China, 70% of the 300 respondents said they were trying to identify which of their suppliers were in locked-down parts of the country.

3 Simultaneously, Michigan-based Creative Foam Corp. and Minneapolis-based Twin City Die Castings, both auto industry suppliers, repurposed their capacity to provide parts at high volume for the GM-Ventec endeavour. At first, the consortium planned to produce 30,000 of Ventec’s premiere product with 700+ components for which it had identified most of the suppliers. The government balked at the $1 billion price tag. Hence, GM and Ventec switched to a more straightforward design with half the cost, but only the single ventilator function without oxygen-related features.

4 A proper surgical mask comprises three layers: an outer hydrophobic non-woven layer, a middle melt-blown layer, and an inner soft, absorbent non-woven layer. The outer layer repels water, blood, and body fluids; the middle melt-blown layer is designed as the ‘filter’ to stop germs from entering or exiting the mask; and the inner layer absorbs water, sweat, and spit.

5 An N95 ‘mask’ is a respiratory protective device designed to achieve a close facial fit and efficient airborne particles’ filtration. Unlike the surgical mask, the N95 respirator’s edges form a ‘seal’ around the nose and mouth.

6 Recent research shows that ventilators create other long-term problems (e.g. blood clots) for patients and may not improve survival odds. Instead, many doctors now prescribe less invasive treatments: flipping patients on their sides or stomachs to aid in breathing or providing continuous oxygen flow through a constant positive airway pressure (CPAP) machine.

7 The Storefront is ‘an online platform where members can access member-exclusive information, project data, and intellectual capital assets, including project deliverables and artifacts along with their association to the Technology Roadmap.’

8 The SIR (Susceptible, Infected, and Recovered) model is an epidemiological model that computes the theoretical number of people infected with a contagious illness in a closed population over time (Harko, Lobo, and Mak 2014).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

ManMohan S. Sodhi

ManMohan S. Sodhi (PhD, UCLA) is professor in operations and supply chain management at the Business School (formerly Cass) at City University of London. His interests lie in supply chain management broadly, with papers in risk, sustainability, finance, and technology. His current projects include: (1) supply chain management in extreme conditions such as those caused by the pandemic; (2) supply chains for recovery after disasters and development; (3) modern slavery; (4) public-private supply chains; and (5) use of analytics and technologies in the supply chain including for finance.

Christopher S. Tang

Christopher S. Tang (PhD, Yale) is UCLA Distinguished Professor and Edward W. Carter Chair in Business Administration. His current research is focused on social innovation in developing countries, identifying how companies operate in the environment to do good while doing well at the same time. Exposure to real-life industry projects motivated his academic research. He has developed teaching cases on a variety of concerns such as micro-finance for the poor, mobile platforms for developing economies, creating shared values and direct procurement of agricultural products, response management in disasters and new business models in the age of the Internet.

Evan T. Willenson

Evan T. Willenson (MBA, UCLA) is an MBA candidate in the class of 2021 at the UCLA Anderson School of Management. Previously, he worked as a risk analyst and software developer at a hedge fund in Irvine, California. Prior to that he received his M.S. in Statistics from UC Davis. His current interests include applying machine learning algorithms on financial data as well as data transparency integration for small businesses.