A humanitarian cold supply chain distribution model with equity consideration: The case of COVID-19 vaccine distribution in the European Union

Abstract

This research develops a humanitarian cold supply chain model with equity consideration for COVID-19 vaccine distribution during a pandemic, considering deprivation cost and an important social concept named equity. The proposed comprehensive plan minimizes all incurred costs, including transportation costs, shortage costs, deprivation costs, and holding costs, while aiming at eliminating infection and mortality rates. The proposed three-echelon supply chain model includes suppliers, distributors, and affected regions (ARs), as destinations. We apply the proposed model to the actual vaccine distribution data during the COVID-19 outbreak in Europe. A mixed integer programming (MIP) model is developed to minimize the costs and satisfy the demand goals in the vaccine distribution plan. A sensitivity analysis demonstrates how total and deprivation costs affect each other, helping the managers establish a trade-off between them. The results show that appropriate supply chain planning can minimize logistics and social costs. The proposed model can help policymakers, and decision-makers better understand the importance of equity and implement a fair distribution of vaccines, considering the deprivation cost as a social cost.