Design and Planning of Sustainable Vaccine Supply Chain

Abstract

Sustainable supply chains are nowadays-targeted systems by both academics as well as industrial organizations. The Vaccines Supply Chain (VSC) being of utmost importance because of its great relevance in the world health, should be designed and operated in an optimized form not only aiming to guarantee high service levels at minimum costs but also considering environmental and social concerns. This study addresses such goal and proposes a Multi-Objective and multi-period Mixed Integer Linear Programming (MO-MILP) model for the simultaneous design and planning of sustainable VSC. The three dimensions of the Triple Bottom Line (TBL)—economic, environmental and social are modelled considering respectively the maximization of the Net Present Value (NPV); minimization of environmental impacts; and maximization of social impacts. The model is applied to a representative European supply chain case study, based in a European company. The outcomes obtained with the different scenarios studied clearly show how strategic and tactical decision-making impacts on key performance indicators in a VSC. Again, by the results, it becomes clear the existence of trade-offs between the sustainability dimensions considered and the importance of using multi-objective approach to find feasible and sustainable solutions.