ABSTRACT
Global supply chains (SCs) have been severely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic on several levels. For example, SCs suffered from panic buying-related instabilities and multiple disruptions of supply, demand, and capacity during the pandemic. This study developed an agent-based model (ABM) to predict the effects of panic buying-related instabilities in SCs and offered strategies to improve them. The ABM model includes a simulation and optimization model of a typical SC of an essential product manufacturer (i.e., toilet paper SC) for the analysis of scenarios and strategies to observe improvements in SCs. Among the four strategies identified, the findings suggest boosting production capacity to the maximum and ensuring optimal reorder points, order sizes, and trucks helped the essential product manufacturers reduce panic buying-related instabilities in their SCs. Copyright (C) 2022 The Authors.
ABSTRACT
In the efforts to ensure the health of the Australian population during the COVID pandemic, social, economic, and environmental aspects of people's life were impacted. In addressing the pandemic risks, a number of governments prioritized people's health and well-being over GDP growth. The Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI) is used to account for factors that influence well-being. We used the GPI to assess the pandemic's impact on well-being and we examined our results in relation to the GDP. We estimated the GPI for the first 6 months of 2019 and the same period in 2020, during which the first stages of the COVID pandemic and the first nationwide lockdown in Australia took place. We examined two scenarios, in the first we found that in Q1 the GDP growth (1.4%) was accompanied by a significant GPI growth (5.3%), showing a positive relation to the GDP;but in Q2 the significant drop (-6.3%) in the GDP was not followed by the GPI, instead the GPI growth remained almost steady with even a relatively small increase (0.33%), indicating a negative relation to the GDP growth. Whereas in the second scenario, the GPI growths (7.12%) in Q1 and (-2.60%) Q2 were positively related to the GDP growths (4.6%) in Q1 and (−0.25%) Q2.We discuss the reasons for the divergence between the two indicators and one of the limitations of the GPI as a measure of well-being. Lastly, we discuss the behavioural and policy lessons of the lockdown and their relevance to what is proposed by degrowth economists. © 2022 The Author(s)
ABSTRACT
Due to the current COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2) outbreak, supply chains have been severely disrupted in long term globally. In this paper, we present the results of a simulation study conducted on a case of the global supply chain. We have discussed the impact of COVID19 on the supply chains by citing some recent examples in the retail sector in Australia. We demonstrate the use of simulation modelling to quickly and reliably model and analyze supply chain disruptions through the use of anyLogistix simulation software. In this paper, we have simulated a case of an Australian hardware retail supply chain that has a global supply network. We have investigated the impact of COVID19 disruptions on the supply chain performance. Our results highlighted the importance of waiting order cancellation strategy in the recovery period for reducing supply chain costs and maintaining service level. We also discussed the negative effect of distance between supplier and customer on the resiliency of delivery systems. This initial work was a proof of concept to simulate COVID19 disruptions on a retail supply chain. © 2020 IEEE.