Improving supply system reliability against random disruptions: Strategic protection investment

Stefano Starita and Maria Paola Scaparra

Journal of the Operational Research Society, 2022, vol. 73, issue 6, 1307-1324

Abstract: Supply chains, as vital systems to the well-being of countries and economies, require systematic approaches to reduce their vulnerability. In this paper, we propose a non linear optimisation model to determine an effective distribution of protective resources among facilities in service and supply systems so as to reduce the probability of failure to which facilities are exposed in case of external disruptions. The failure probability of protected assets depends on the level of protection investments and the ultimate goal is to minimise the expected facility-customer transport or travel costs to provide goods and services. A linear version of the model is obtained by exploiting a specialised network flow structure. Furthermore, an efficient GRASP solution algorithm is developed to benchmark the linearised model and resolve numerical difficulties. The applicability of the proposed model is demonstrated using the Toronto hospital network. Protection measures within this context correspond to capacity expansion investments and reduce the likelihood that hospitals are unable to satisfy patient demand during periods of high hospitalisation (e.g. during a pandemic). Managerial insights on the protection resource distribution are discussed and a comparison between probabilistic and worst-case disruptions is provided.

Date: 2022
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/01605682.2021.1911605 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:tjorxx:v:73:y:2022:i:6:p:1307-1324

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/tjor20

DOI: 10.1080/01605682.2021.1911605

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of the Operational Research Society is currently edited by Tom Archibald

More articles in Journal of the Operational Research Society from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().