Providing a Mathematical Model of the Vaccine Supply Chain with the Possibility of Transportation between Warehouses and the Location of Vaccination

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Associate Professor, Department of Industrial Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Science and Culture, Tehran, Iran.

2 Master’s Student in Industrial Engineering, Department of Industrial Engineering, Faculty of Technical and Engineering Sciences, University of Science and Culture, Tehran, Iran.

10.22084/ier.2025.30236.2188

Abstract

Nowadays, societies are striving to ensure immunity against diseases through vaccination, making vaccine supply a crucial aspect of human life. The goal of this research is to propose a mathematical model for the vaccine supply chain to enable more people to receive vaccines at a lower cost. To this end, a mathematical model is presented with the objective of minimizing costs to determine various supply chain decisions, including the number, location, and capacity of network facilities, as well as flow allocation across different centers in the supply chain. A two-stage stochastic programming approach is used to address uncertainty. The assumptions of this research include uncertainties in demand, vaccine vulnerability, waste storage, limited capacity, varying priorities for demand, shortage costs for unmet demand, the possibility of transfers between warehouses, and the location of vaccination centers. The output of the proposed mathematical model includes the location of depots, warehouses, and vaccination centers, the amount of unmet demand, and the volume of transportation between different components of the vaccine supply chain network. To validate the results obtained from the mathematical model, three solution methods available in GAMS were used, and a sensitivity analysis was performed on the key parameters of the problem.

Keywords

Main Subjects

References

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Journal of Industrial Engineering Research in Production Systems
Volume 13, Issue 26
September 2025
Pages 37-53

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