Highly Extensible Resource for Modeling Event-Driven Supply Chains (HERMES)

This simulation model can serve as a 'virtual laboratory' for decision-makers helping to answer what will be the impact of introducing new technologies (vaccines), what may be the effects of altering the characteristics of vaccines and other technologies (e.g., vaccine vial size, vaccine thermostability, or cold device capacity), how do configurations of supply chain affect performance and cost, effects of differeng conditions, how to allocate resources, how to optimize vaccine delivery. Examples of common model outputs include vaccine availability (i.e., the percentage of clients arriving at an immunization location who are successfully vaccinated), vaccine wastage, storage capacity utilization (e.g., the percentage of available space used each day), transport capacity utilization, number of stockouts (i.e., the number of times a location runs out of a particular vaccine), vaccine doses delivered or administered, and time-to-patient. Modeling provides decision-makers an opportunity to see how changes will affect the overall system without makign changes in the actual supply chain. It allows to find the optimal mix of cost, performance and risk based on a country's context and priorities.