Decision-Making Modules for the RSS-POD Supply Management Game
A Game-Based Assessment of Crisis Decision Making During Inventory Management and Distribution of Medical Countermeasures
Published Oct 11, 2009
This document introduces and explains two new modules for the RSS-POD Supply Chain Management Game, a Microsoft Excel-based, computer simulation game designed to provide practice in managing inventories of medical countermeasures during a largescale public health emergency. As with an earlier version of the game described by Chan et al. (2009), players perform the role of inventory manager at a Receipt, Storage, and Staging (RSS) facility and must allocate inventory among multiple points of dispensing (PODs). This new version of the game introduces Modules 4 and 5, which are designed to promote group discussion regarding decisions about how to allocate scarce resources. Specifically, in Module 4 players must decide how many and which points of dispensing (PODs) to open in the face of a staffing shortage. In Module 5 players must decide how to allocate and dispense medication when shipment delays cause a temporary inventory shortage. The RSS-POD Supply Chain Management Game is part of a larger set of tools developed by RAND that states and localities can use to assess and improve readiness related to 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’ SNS-related capabilities.
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- Copyright: RAND Corporation
- Availability: Web-Only
- Year: 2009
- Pages: 70
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.7249/WR692
- Document Number: WR-692-DHHS
Citation
RAND Style Manual
Parker, Andrew M., Shoshana R. Shelton, Paul Dreyer, Christopher D. Nelson, Edward W. Chan, Amy L. Maletic, and Matthew W. Lewis, Decision-Making Modules for the RSS-POD Supply Management Game: A Game-Based Assessment of Crisis Decision Making During Inventory Management and Distribution of Medical Countermeasures, RAND Corporation, WR-692-DHHS, 2009. As of July 13, 2026: https://www.rand.org/pubs/working_papers/WR692.html
Chicago Manual of Style
Parker, Andrew M., Shoshana R. Shelton, Paul Dreyer, Christopher D. Nelson, Edward W. Chan, Amy L. Maletic, and Matthew W. Lewis, Decision-Making Modules for the RSS-POD Supply Management Game: A Game-Based Assessment of Crisis Decision Making During Inventory Management and Distribution of Medical Countermeasures. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 2009. https://www.rand.org/pubs/working_papers/WR692.html.
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