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The study discusses a rationale for a new type of capability called supply chain immunity that is required to address slow-moving, persistent and dispersed pandemics similar to COVID-19 in the future. The authors’ work on the COVID-19 emergency response suggests flaws in the medical and healthcare supply chain systems, due to reliance on overseas manufacturing and insufficient strategic stockpile.

In seeking to understand the characteristics of supply chain immunity and how it is related to the need for a renewed strategic national stockpile, the authors adopted an inductive observational approach of engaged scholarship, based on their team’s extensive involvement in the national COVID-19 healthcare response during March–June 2020.

The study analysis, based on visibility, velocity and global independence, establishes a new type of supply chain immunity, along with the requirements for development of this capability. The framework for immunity proposed in this article provides general guidelines that an emergency responder would probably use in an informal fashion. The immunity framework is validated through references to current work on COVID-19 supply chain preparedness.

The understanding of readiness for pandemic operations using the metaphor of supply chain immunity is unique. It contains important observations on the development of capabilities – specifically, the outcome of an aligned medical and supply chain intelligence, a clinical standards organization and a materials management monitoring system. The authors’ insights are supported not only by literature but also due to direct engagement with academic scholars, Department of Defense (DoD) personnel, supply risk platforms and government officials involved in the COVID-19 pandemic response.

Several emergency public health issues have a tremendous impact on and rely upon close coordination with law enforcement officials. Most interactions involve law enforcement personnel providing security, crowd control, and/or traffic control during public health related incidents. However, as varied chemical and biological threats have emerged over the years, this interaction has increased to include joint investigations between the two disciplines. Certain biological threats, such as pandemics, pose direct threats to the law enforcement agency operations. Understanding the role of public health in emergencies, the overlapping missions, and the threats at all levels allows law enforcement professionals to better prepare themselves and their organizations for coordinating operations and maintaining continuity of law enforcement services.

Both high reliability theory (HRT) and “new school” supply chain resilience (SCR) promote a multi-layered, adaptable, transformational, and holistic perspective on organizing and managing. The authors explore whether, and if so how, HRT offer fresh perspectives on the SCR challenges experienced during COVID-19 and on organizing for future resilience.

Addressing SCR at the interorganizational network level, and blending theory synthesis and case study research, the authors assess if and how HRN constructs and practices can guide analysis of SCR in dynamic, complex networks, and help shape development pathways towards organizing for resilience. Findings draw on thick description and iterative coding of data (58 interviews and 200+ documents) on the buyer network responsible for managing the supply of critical medical products in the Netherlands.

HRT highlights the interconnectedness of challenges encountered during COVID-19 and helps design future resilience through three lessons. Organizing for SCR requires (1) both anticipation and containment strategies, (2) stable working relationships characterized by trust, and (3) a clear basis of command underpinned by experience-based legitimacy.

Distinctive from SCR, which views crises as “black swans”, HRT organizes around everyday consideration of the risk of failure. Taking a buyer network perspective, the authors move beyond the buyer-supplier network focus in SCR. The authors contend that emphasis on measures such as supplier base management, stockpiling, and domestic production are essential but not sufficient. Rather, HRT implies that deep structural and social ties within the buyer network should also be emphasized.

The procurement and supply of crucial healthcare products in the early stages of the COVID-19 emergency were chaotic. To prepare for future crises, we must be able to describe what went wrong, and why, and map out ways to build agility and resilience. How can this be done effectively, given the highly complex and diverse network of actors across governments, care providers and supply chains, and the extreme uncertainty and dynamism in the procurement system and supplier markets? The purpose of this study was to capture learning from practitioners in “real time” in a way that could frame and inform capacity building across healthcare systems with varying procurement and supply management maturity.

This exploratory study involved interviews with 58 senior public procurement practitioners in central and regional governments, NGOs and leaders of professional organizations from 23 countries, very early in the COVID crisis. Following the first, inductive phase of analysis leading to five descriptive dimensions, the awareness-motivation-capability (A-M-C) framework was applied in a further round of coding, to understand immediate challenges faced by procurement practitioners, how the complex, multi-level procurement system that shaped their motivations to respond and critical capabilities required to face these challenges.

Developments across 23 countries and practitioners' learning about procurement and supply in the pandemic crisis can be captured in five overarching themes: governance and organization, knowledge and skills, information systems, regulation and supply base issues. Together these themes cover the strengths and gaps in procurement and supply capability encountered by procurement leaders and front-line personnel. They highlight the various facets of structure, resource and process which constitute organizational capability. However, to account better for the highly dynamic situation characterized by both unprecedented rivalry and cooperation, analysts must also pay attention to actors' emerging awareness of the situation and their rapidly changing motivations.

The application of the A-M-C framework is unique in the healthcare supply chain and disaster management literature. It enables a comprehensive overview of healthcare procurement from a system perspective. This study shows how increasing system preparedness for future emergencies depends both on developing critical capabilities and understanding how awareness and motivation influence the effective deployment of those capabilities.

The purpose of this paper is to study the managing of emergencies pertinent to public health which is critical to the well‐being of a society; as such, the management mechanisms employed should be of great interest and significance for research.

This paper first relies on extensive literature to describe the mechanism used in the USA from three aspects – organizational structure, management system, and logistics network. For the purpose of comparison, the Chinese version of the mechanism is presented from the same three aspects. The two management systems are then compared both qualitatively and quantitatively.

Deficient areas in Chinese public‐health management mechanism as well as challenging issues associated with supply chain design and coordination for emergency supplies in the context of large‐scale public health emergencies with low frequency but catastrophic impacts are found. Specifically, the following three important research problems are revealed from the comparative study: how to establish an efficient organizational structure that incorporates all the relevant entities in public‐health emergency management? How to establish an information system for emergency management that integrates disease surveillance, control, and prevention? How to design an efficient and cost‐effective logistics network to ensure prompt and sufficient delivery of emergency supplies?

To date, this research has been the first of its kind that compares two countries' emergency management systems in the context of public health management.

This study aims to highlight and validate the importance of strategic procurement and its value to both public and private firms. This study discusses a collaborative private-public partnership (PPP), supply chain advisory committee (SCAC), established during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic to acquire personal protective equipment (PPE) and other critical supplies for a donation center in Toledo, Ohio, USA. This center serves the community and small businesses. This paper discusses the strategies, process and framework that were created to procure the needed items under a short lead time. The process of the partnership and outcomes are transferable and capable of being used by others to benefit society.

The case study methodology was used to investigate and summarize the actions and events of the SCAC. The case presented was tracked from the initial call to action from a local emergency response organization, Lucas County Emergency Operation Center (EOC), through the first six months of the committee’s work. Data collection was completed through a triangulation of sources.

The findings of this study reveal that public firms are vulnerable in a crisis. A crisis exposes the inequities in the supply chain and the need for public and private collaboration to use innovative procurement strategies. This study suggests that PPP procurement professionals benefit from working together. Both can learn from the limitations and benefits of collaborating.

This study offers a framework on how PPPs can be established to procure PPE during a crisis. This study has practical implications for private and public firms seeking to collaborate for the good of society.

The findings of the study reveal that public firms are vulnerable in a crisis, which exposes the inequities in their supply chains. Private-public partnership (PPP) procurement professionals mutually benefit from working together as both can learn from each whether it is procuring PPE during a crisis or seeking to team up for the good of society. Society benefits when these organizations share solutions to problems rather than compete against one another during a crisis-situation such as a global pandemic. Supplies get to those who need them the most and information flows amongst the organizations to ensure equity in the availability of the supplies.

This study contributes to the growing body of literature that argues that public procurement must be innovative and strategic to contribute to socially responsible solutions. Government regulations require public procurement to use competitive bidding for accountability, cost reduction and to reduce fraud. However, emergency situations require innovative procurement strategies. The use of innovative procurement strategies is typical in private procurement. During a crisis, supplier relationships, lead-time management and shared and transfer of knowledge must be leveraged to acquire critical items in a timely manner. A lack of innovative public procurement strategies constrains the public and small under resourced businesses, rendering them inoperable. This paper provides a case study of an effective PPP during the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper highlights the strategies, process and framework for future research and collaborations.

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has emerged as an unprecedented health crisis worldwide and heavily disrupted the healthcare supply chain. This study focuses on analysing the different types of disruptions occurring in personal protective equipment (PPE) supply chains during the COVID-19 pandemic and on proposing mitigation strategies that are fit to the global scale and many interdependencies that are characteristic for this pandemic. The authors construct a conceptual system dynamics model (SD) based on the literature and adjusted with the use of empirical data (interviews) to capture the complexity of a global supply chain and identify leverage points (mitigation strategies).

This research follows a mix-methods approach. First, the authors developed a conceptual framework based on four types of disruptions that usually occur during health emergencies (direct effect, policy, supply chain strategy, and behaviourally induced disruptions). Second, the authors collected and analysed data from interviews with experts in the PPE supply chain. Based on the interviews data, the authors developed a conceptual system dynamics (SD) model that allows to capture the complex and dynamic interplay between the elements of the global supply chain system, by highlighting key feedback loops, delays, and the way the mitigation strategies can impact on them. From this analysis, the authors developed four propositions for supply chain risk management (SCRM) in global health emergencies and four recommendations for the policy and decision makers.

The SD model highlights that without a combination of mitigation measures, it is impossible to overcome all disruptions. As such, a co-ordinated effort across the different countries and sectors that experience the disruptions is needed. The SD model also shows that there are important feedback loops, by which initial disruptions create delays and shortages that propagate through the supply chain network. If the co-ordinated mitigation measures are not implemented early at the onset of the pandemic, these disruptions will be persistent, creating potential shortages of PPE and other critical equipment at the onset of a pandemic – when they are most urgently needed.

This research enriches the understanding of the disruptions of PPE supply chains on the systems level and proposes mitigation strategies based on empirical data and the existing literature.

While the need for information systems is regularly highlighted in the humanitarian logistics literature, a detailed model of what such system would look like is missing. The purpose of this paper is to highlight the need and advantages of enterprise resource planning (ERP) technology in humanitarian emergency logistics. The paper also proposes a model for the configuration, maintenance, operation, and improvement of the system.

This conceptual paper uses existing logistics and information systems literature to build the logical case for an integrated enterprise system for humanitarian emergencies, and to propose conceptual content and process models.

The problem of lack of coordination is reviewed, and a holistic solution is proposed through a structure and model of ERP systems technology to meet the specific requirements of humanitarian emergencies.

As in any conceptual paper, a limitation of this paper is the lack of empirical validation of the proposed system. It also might be difficult to obtain the cooperation of multiple organizations. This research focuses on emergency humanitarian logistics, where effectiveness and speed have priority over simplicity or cost.

The model proposed in this paper links current efforts in humanitarian emergency coordination with existing supply chain information technologies, and is practically feasible both from the technological and organizational perspectives.

Because of the critical, life or death nature of the problem, social and ethical implications of this research are broad, including the divergence of coordination in humanitarian vs commercial and military logistics, as well as inter-agency politics.

This paper is a bold but realistic attempt to take a holistic view of humanitarian logistics and design a system that would be effective, and calls humanitarian organizations worldwide to collaborate in its implementation.

The purpose of this paper is to review the federal decisions to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) response in the United States and consider the different approaches employed by the California state government.

This paper focuses on COVID-19-related issues, responses and implications in federal countries, and largely draws comparisons between the Trump Administration and California state.

The slow response of the federal government could have been avoided, had there been a current and tested national plan. The defunding of the Office of Pandemics and Emerging Threats, and the lack of coordination between the Trump Administration and the states have contributed to its ranking as the country with the highest COVID-19 infection and fatality rates worldwide. California state oversaw an effective initial pandemic response, which was ultimately undermined by a lack of national support and the refusal of some citizens to comply with the restrictions.

The paper draws upon open-source information published on government websites and news media.

As the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States is currently ongoing, information about the federal governance and state response is still evolving. The authors examine California as a state exemplar, since it is the largest such jurisdiction by populace and the first state to issue statewide mandatory lockdown measures. This comparison offers insights as to the decisive initiatives that could have occurred at the federal level. The “lessons learned” highlight the critical role of crisis leadership in societal and public health preparedness for future pandemic events.