A literature review on quantitative models for supply chain risk management: Can they be applied to pandemic disruptions?

Supply chain risk management is considered a topic of increasing interest worldwide and its focus has evolved over time. The recent coronavirus pandemic (known as COVID-19) has forced business to handle a new global crisis and rapidly adapt to unexpected challenges. In an attempt to help companies counteract the pandemic risk, as well as to fuel the scientific discussion about this topic, this paper proposes a systematic literature review on risk management and disruptions in the supply chain focusing on quantitative models and paying a particular attention to highlighting the potentials of the studies reviewed for being applied to counteract pandemic emergencies. An appropriate query was made on Scopus and returned, after a manual screening, a useful set of 99 papers that proposed models for supply chain risk management. The relevant aspects of pandemics risk management have been first identified and mapped; then, the studies reviewed have been analysed with the aim of evaluating their suitability of being applied to sanitary crises. In carrying out this review of the literature, the study moves from previous, more general, reviews about risk management and updates them, starting from the lines of research that have been covered in recent years and evaluating their consistency with future research directions emerging also as a consequence of the pandemic crisis. Gaps and limitations of the existing models are identified and future research directions for pandemics risk management are suggested.

Use of the AHP methodology in system dynamics: Modelling and simulation for health technology assessments to determine the correct prosthesis choice for hernia diseases.

Health technology assessments (HTAs) are often difficult to conduct because of the decisive procedures of the HTA algorithm, which are often complex and not easy to apply. Thus, their use is not always convenient or possible for the assessment of technical requests requiring a multidisciplinary approach. This paper aims to address this issue through a multi-criteria analysis focusing on the analytic hierarchy process (AHP). This methodology allows the decision maker to analyse and evaluate different alternatives and monitor their impact on different actors during the decision-making process. However, the multi-criteria analysis is implemented through a simulation model to overcome the limitations of the AHP methodology. Simulations help decision-makers to make an appropriate decision and avoid unnecessary and costly attempts. Finally, a decision problem regarding the evaluation of two health technologies, namely, the evaluation of two biological prostheses for incisional infected hernias, will be analysed to assess the effectiveness of the model.