Sustainability Strategies of Equipment Introduction and Overcapacity Risk Sharing in Mask Emergency Supply Chains during Pandemics

The sustainability of the mask emergency supply chain faces two problems during the current COVID-19 pandemic. First, mask manufacturers are mainly small and mid-size enterprises, resulting in a lack of funds and credit lines for the introduction of equipment. Second, the periodicity and uncertainty of pandemics create overcapacity risk for the mask emergency supply chain. To solve these problems, this study incorporates financial leasing institutions and the government into the mask emergency supply chain. Based on a questionnaire survey of practitioners of financial leasing institutions, the relationship between mask manufacturers, financial leasing institutions, and the government in the mask supply chain is analyzed through a game model, and the behavior of mask manufacturers to reduce the scale of mask production after the occurrence of overcapacity is investigated using the cusp catastrophe theory. We find that in the case of masks’ overcapacity, mask manufacturers tend to continue production. Finally, we propose that financial leasing institutions should lease mask production equipment to mask manufacturers under the guarantee of the government and develop a mechanism for the three parties to jointly share the risk of mask overcapacity, aiming at ensuring the sustainable manufacturing of masks during the pandemic.

Improvement Methods for Supply Performance in Emergency Interconnection Plans

When operating a water supply network (WSN), pipe failures and water service interruptions are inevitable. A large-scale water service interruption decreases the reliability of a WSN; therefore, an emergency interconnection plan (EIP) is adopted to prevent it. To establish an EIP involving emergency interconnection pipes, in most cases, only the operation plan is considered. However, it is required to evaluate possible interconnected supply areas (PISAs) from the EIP to achieve the purpose of the EIP. It is obvious that PISA is dependent on the structure of the WSN, elevation difference between the adjacent interconnected blocks, size and location of the emergency interconnection pipes, and inline pumping station. In this study, we categorized the reasons resulting in insufficient PISA from the EIP and suggested improvement methods such as increasing the pipe diameter, new pumping stations, adding emergency interconnection pipes, and adding pressure relief valves. To quantify the effect of the improvement methods on the performance of the EIP, we applied them to a real WSN and estimated the emergency supply rate for each improvement method by using Pressure Driven Analysis (PDA) was used as the hydraulic simulation tool. Consequently, each improvement method increased the PISA and the emergency supply rate on the network. Thus, the suggested method will be used in the design and operation of EIPs to improve their performance.