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Toward effective common operating policies for medical items in ongoing humanitarian operations : the science and art of segmentation : a case study

Thesis: M. Eng. in Supply Chain Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Supply Chain Management Program, 2018. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (pages 70-73). / Ongoing humanitarian operations can suffer from the lack of medical item availability. The central problem thus becomes how to ensure the right item in the right place at the right time while maintaining appropriate costs. By means of a case study, this research grouped items by various item characteristics and assigned each group a common operating policy. The results of such item segmentation, and the application of common operating policies, was a theoretical increase over the current rule of thumb, single operating policy by 22% in average expected item availability and a decrease in total costs of 2-8%. Yet, similar results were achieved without segmentation. The major conclusion is that consideration of demand variability as a means to achieve greater item availability is key. The determination of appropriate costs becomes a transparent one for the decision-maker. More generally, this approach facilitates the comparison of various inventory management scenarios and the assumption of informed levels of risk. / by Brent Turner. / M. Eng. in Supply Chain Management

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:MIT/oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/117927
Date January 2018
CreatorsTurner, Brent (Brent Jason)
ContributorsJarrod Goentzel., Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Supply Chain Management Program., Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Supply Chain Management Program.
PublisherMassachusetts Institute of Technology
Source SetsM.I.T. Theses and Dissertation
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeThesis
Format94 pages, application/pdf
RightsMIT theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed, downloaded, or printed from this source but further reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission., http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

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