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The RSS-POD Supply Chain Management Game

An Exercise for Improving the Inventory Management and Distribution of Medical Countermeasures

by Edward W. Chan, Carol E. Fan, Matthew W. Lewis, Kathleen King, Paul Dreyer, Christopher Nelson

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This spreadsheet contains the electronic version of the Game referred to in the working paper. It was created using Microsoft Excel 2003. The interactive feature, which use Excel macros, may not work under the Macintosh operating system.

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This paper introduces and explains the RSS-POD Supply Chain Management Game, a Microsoft Excel-based simulation game designed to provide practice in managing inventory of medical countermeasures during large-scale public health emergency. Players perform the role of inventory manager at a receipt, storing, and staging (RSS) facility and must allocate inventory among multiple points of dispensing (PODs). The simulation is part of a larger set of tools developed by the RAND Corporation that states and localities can use to assess and improve their readiness to work with the Strategic National Stockpile (SNS). Since 2006, RAND has been working with the Center for Disease Control and Prevention's Division of the Strategic National Stockpile (CDC DSNS) to develop assessments of jurisdictions' SNSrelated capabilities. The paper briefly describes the methods and considerations that informed development of the simulation game (Chapter 1), provides a brief overview to the game (Chapter 2), and recommends next steps in the development and testing of the game (Chapter 3). Readers well versed in countermeasure delivery and the SNS might wish to proceed directly to the player's guide provided in Appendix A.

Table of Contents

  • Chapter One

    Introduction

  • Chapter Two

    The RSS-POD Supply Chain Management Game

  • Chapter Three

    Next Steps

  • Appendix

    RSS-POD Supply Chain Management Game Player's Guide

The research in this report was prepared for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response and conducted by RAND Health.

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