Title: Redesigning human vaccines supply chain network post-COVID-19 pandemic: a case study of Iran

Authors: Malihe Lahmi; Arash Nemati; Abdul Sattar Safaei

Addresses: Department of Industrial Engineering, Babol Noshirvani University of Technology, Babol, Iran ' Department of Industrial Engineering, Babol Noshirvani University of Technology, Babol, Iran ' Department of Industrial Engineering, Babol Noshirvani University of Technology, Babol, Iran

Abstract: The emergency need for vaccination during the COVID-19 pandemic has reminded the significance of having an efficient vaccine supply chain network. The fact that the COVID-19 vaccine (C19V) is a newly added member of the vaccine basket highlights the importance of redesigning the current vaccine supply chains, particularly in countries with some existing vaccine manufacturers. In addition, the economic and social drawbacks of the COVID-19 pandemic have led to the vagueness of some factors, such as birth rate and childhood vaccine demand. Hence, this paper proposes a fuzzy multi-period mixed-integer mathematical model to modify the current vaccine supply chain to deal with new challenges after the COVID-19 pandemic. The proposed model is solved using the CPLEX solver in a case study from Iran. Results show that Iran needs four new vaccine manufacturers and eight distribution centres to handle the vaccine transmission between factories and all customers in the new vaccine supply chain network.

Keywords: COVID-19 pandemic effects; COVID-19 vaccine; optimality grade; location-allocation-inventory problem; redesigning supply chain network; uncertain demand; vaccine supply chain; vague vaccine waste rate.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSOM.2025.144188

International Journal of Services and Operations Management, 2025 Vol.50 No.1, pp.76 - 98

Received: 12 Jun 2022
Accepted: 25 Dec 2022
Published online: 31 Jan 2025 *