Managing panic buying-related instabilities in supply chains: A COVID-19 pandemic perspective

Towfique Rahman; Sanjoy Kumar Paul; Nagesh Shukla; Renu Agarwal; Firouzeh Taghikhah

doi:10.1016/j.ifacol.2022.09.405

Managing panic buying-related instabilities in supply chains: A COVID-19 pandemic perspective

IFAC Pap OnLine. 2022;55(10):305-310. doi: 10.1016/j.ifacol.2022.09.405. Epub 2022 Oct 26.

Authors

Towfique Rahman¹, Sanjoy Kumar Paul¹, Nagesh Shukla², Renu Agarwal¹, Firouzeh Taghikhah³

Affiliations

¹ UTS Business School, University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, Australia.
² Faculty of Engineering & IT, University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, Australia.
³ Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia.

Abstract

Global supply chains (SCs) have been severely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic on several levels. For example, SCs suffered from panic buying-related instabilities and multiple disruptions of supply, demand, and capacity during the pandemic. This study developed an agent-based model (ABM) to predict the effects of panic buying-related instabilities in SCs and offered strategies to improve them. The ABM model includes a simulation and optimization model of a typical SC of an essential product manufacturer (i.e., toilet paper SC) for the analysis of scenarios and strategies to observe improvements in SCs. Among the four strategies identified, the findings suggest boosting production capacity to the maximum and ensuring optimal reorder points, order sizes, and trucks helped the essential product manufacturers reduce panic buying-related instabilities in their SCs.

Keywords: COVID-19 pandemic; Supply chain; agent-based modeling; mitigation; panic buying.