Title: Analysis of healthcare supply chain systems exposed to random capacity disruptions

Authors: Alex Savachkin, Andres Uribe-Sanchez

Addresses: Department of Industrial and Management Systems Engineering, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL 33620, USA. ' Department of Industrial and Management Systems Engineering, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL 33620, USA

Abstract: Capacity disruptions caused by forces of nature, process-related hazards, and man-made malignant interventions have shown to be a profound risk factor for lean healthcare supply chain systems, such as pharmaceutical and medical equipment/devices enterprises. At the same time, decision support methodologies suitable for analysing healthcare supply chain risk incurred through capacity disruptions have been largely unavailable. In this paper, we examine capacitated healthcare supply chain systems using a framework of feed-forward flow-matching networks with multiple points of delivery. We analyse two models of stochastic dynamics of such systems in the presence of random disruptions. The proposed closed-form analytics will serve as a foundation for future mathematical methodologies for risk-based design of resilient healthcare supply chains.

Keywords: SCM; supply chain management; capacity disruptions; feed-forward; flow-matching networks; stochastic dynamics; random disruptions; forces of nature; natural forces; process-related hazards; man-made interventions; artificial interventions; malignant interventions; risk factors; pharmaceutical equipment; medical devices; medical equipment; decision support; capacitated systems; delivery points; closed-form analytics; mathematical methodologies; risk-based design; resilience; resilient supply chains; lean systems; collaborative enterprises; collaboration; healthcare systems; systems engineering.

DOI: 10.1504/IJCENT.2010.038353

International Journal of Collaborative Enterprise, 2010 Vol.1 No.3/4, pp.252 - 272

Published online: 01 Feb 2011 *

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