COVAX - the best SC to be developed!!!

 

With the world economies suffering from the COVID Virus or as more commonly known by the Americans – The Wuhan Virus, the world has moved into a state of deglobalization. Countries have closed their borders; international flights have been grounded and the country leaders are talking about becoming self-sufficient.

Some countries have stopped the visas of other nationality people whereas some have increased the import duties to encourage the self-sufficiency and self-reliance concept.

It is not that these decisions were taken in a blink of the eye moment, but there were incidences which led to such decisions like the supply of faulty testing kits.

But the Questions that haunt us right now are: With the death tolls continuously rising and the economies crashing, will the countries continue to support deglobalization? What if one country achieves a breakthrough and all the other countries (Powerful, developed nations) are fighting with each other leave alone suppressing the under-developed and developing nations to get their hands on the magical life-saving formula? What would be the best way to save maximum number of lives by ensuring “THE MOST RESPONSIVE SC TO DATE”?

From the data gathered by the WHO website, we understand that, there are currently 169 candidates in the list with 26 top contenders in their human trial phase.

 

Let us, for the sake of discussion, say that Russia’s SPUTNIK V is successful in making the vaccine, and it has a production capacity of 100,000 dozes per day. The population of the world is 7.8 Billion as per the data taken from google.com, by doing the basic calculations, we can see that it will take around 7800 days which is almost 215 years for each and every person on the face of Earth to be vaccinated, (assuming that only one manufacturer is present). It is obvious that the drug maker will increase its production over the time period and also the other drug makers in the world will try to imitate the formula and make similar drugs and the time might be reduced. Speaking very optimistically, and taking all the capacity enhancement procedures, it will at least take 50 years for 7.8 Billion People to get the vaccine.

 

Not having a properly designed SC, may lead to a World War III between the powerful nations who will try to save their people which will lead to further destruction rather than curbing it. It is therefore very important that the decision makers think about a unique, robust and most responsive supply chain and make the vaccine available around the globe in the least possible time.

The work for developing a COVAX (as the WHO calls it) is ongoing at an unprecedented speed. Some of the countries which are in the race are:

1.      Russia

2.      USA

3.      India

4.      China (with no one buying from it due to past experience)

5.      Germany

 

Another important factor is the shelf life of the vaccine and the conditions in which it has to be transported from the drug maker to billions of people around the globe. As per the field experts, the vaccine will have to be transported at 2 to 8^oC, which is another feather in the hat of problems.

The suggestions from a logistics student perspective would be, the world leaders in logistics operations, to start building and investing to develop a supply chain that the world has never witnessed before. All the three modes; Land, Water and Air, should be used to the maximum capacity to transport the vaccine; in return, the drivers of this robust logistics system should be vaccinated first, so that they are motivated to help save the mankind.

Proper and directed decisions to be taken and all the contenders in the world should be connected initially to increase the production capacity, so that all the netizens of the world can be vaccinated at the earliest.

 

Humanitarian Supply Chain (HSC)

                               

December 26, 2004 a day not to be forgotten in History, Yes we are talking about the massive tsunami which swept millions of lives and livelihood of people of South East Asia. True that during natural calamities like tsunami, we witness the damage it causes, the pain it leaves and certainly the lives it takes but now let us witness some lessons it teaches.

Humanitarian Supply Chain, a connecting thread between the donor and the beneficiary acts a relieving point in minimizing the human suffering and the loss.  The core activity of the Humanitarian Supply Chain is to provide the indispensable needs to the vulnerable groups as promptly as they can while the way they execute underlies certain predominant differences between commercial supply chain and HSC which opens up today's learning on Supply Chain . 

                            

Let us unwind the Humanitarian Supply Chain by starting to comprehend different players of the relief value chain of Tsunami 2004, and they were Donors, Humanitarians, Governments, Military and the Beneficiaries. And the engagement of these stakeholders can be implicated with relief value chain model developed by fritz institute in the year 2004

The operation of HSC  commences with preparedness stage which  acts beyond any specific disaster, it is the ready set stage set by the country’s Government to handle to the uncertainties, whereas the assessment stage is more specific to the type of disaster and to the region affected. In 2004 Tsunami, the major needs that were assessed for:  food, water, medicines, temporary tents and not clothes, winter jackets or canned food. After the assessment was done the humanitarians collected the goods from the various Donors fragmented throughout the globe.

When the goods were ready to be shipped; the ports and airports were opened and was fully packed with resources to receive the goods and to transfer it to the local logisticians. The area of beneficiaries who were to receive the goods were mapped by the regional Government. And these beneficiaries of damaged areas received the materials and food as per the prior mapping through the enabled military and Para military forces.Though the Humanitarian Supply Chain aimed to deliver the goods at greater promptness it suffered various major weaknesses during 2004 calamity and they were:

·   1.Transfer of unsolicited goods

·   2.Transfer of unsuitable goods

·   3.In adequate assessments

·  4. Lack of tools and technology to track

·   5.Co ordination and collaboration

Especially, Unsolicited and unsuitable donations wasted time and effort that went back in bringing them to the beneficiaries. In certain cases, the process of assessment took more time hence planning the blueprint delayed which caused the beneficiaries to suffer for few days without much medical or material support.  Like any other commercial supply chain, Humanitarian Supply chain posses  the relief chain model that came into existence and practice in 2004, where it stands as a benchmark for building further models. #Happy_Learning 4