Table of Content

Research Abstract 2

1.           Introduction. 2

2.           Research background and significance. 2

2.1 Research Background. 2

2.2 Significance of Research. 3

2.2.1 Relevant Theoretical Research and Literature Review.. 5

2.2.2 Supply Chain Risk Management 7

3.           Research Aim.. 8

4.           Research Objectives: 8

5.           Research question: 9

6.           Research Methodology. 9

6.1      Research Philosophy. 9

6.2      Research Strategy – Case Study. 10

6.3      Research Design. 11

6.3.1      Data Collection Techniques – Interviews. 12

6.3.2      Data Analysis – Thematic Analysis. 13

6.3.3      Discussion & Data Interpretation. 14

6.3.4      Ethical Issues & Limitations. 14

7.           Anticipated Outcomes. 15

8.           Timeline, Facilities, Budget 17

9.           Conclusion. 19

10.         References. 20

Research Abstract of  how does supply chain management minimize troubles to the supply chain caused by public health emergent threats like COVID-19

The recent pandemic COVID-19 has shocked the whole world by bringing all-powerful nations on to their feet. The Coronavirus greatly impacted the world's economy by creating the stimulation on Supply Chain Management. The impact of this epidemic has led to large scale shutdowns and increased the difficulty in continuing the businesses after this epidemic. While this current research on supply chain management provides innovative approaches to overcome emergencies in the supply chain caused by this Outbreak. The research adopted the subjective ontology and an interpretive epistemology that uses Qualitative research to analyze the data collected from an experiment conducted on businesses and employees. This study will combine the supply chain crisis factors and public health crisis factors to study the SCM's crisis response measures under specific circumstances.

1.   Introduction of  how does supply chain management minimize troubles to the supply chain caused by public health emergent threats like COVID-19

The repercussions of COVID-19 outbreak are being felt more strongly with every passing day and this epidemic has led to supply chain-related crisis. This epidemic outbreak is a special case of supply chain (SC) risks which are different from the ordinary supply chain disasters. The current research on supply chain disruption management uses risk management. The most efficient way to save an enterprise or even the entire supply chain is by using supply chain management technology to repair broken supply chains. This research illustrates how simulation-based methodologies can be used to determine and forecast the impacts of infectious outbreaks on Supply chain.

2.   Research background and significance

2.1 Research Background of  how does supply chain management minimize troubles to the supply chain caused by public health emergent threats like COVID-19

Cases of supply chain disruption caused by various accidents continue to occur, especially under the influence of recent COVID-19 epidemics. People have to re-examine the idea of ​​lean supply chain management advocated, and it is not advisable to pursue low cost and high efficiency blindly (Kerber & Dreckshage 2011). As all sectors of society are affected by supply chain disruption, more and more attention and research are being conducted on supply chain disruption management. However, as far as the current research status is concerned, most research on supply chain disruption management uses risk management. Analysis and control. As the most frequently used supply chain management is not been valued. Using supply chain management technology to repair broken supply chains may be the most effective way to save an enterprise or even the entire supply chain. Based on this, research on how to use supply chain management correctly is particularly important. Studying the repair of supply chain interruption by supply chain management has both important theoretical and practical significance.

(1) Supply chain breakage will cause various problems. The first is the production shutdown of downstream enterprises, which will lead to a rapid decrease in the market supply and price increases (Paksoy, Weber & Huber 2019). These problems can be solved by Lin using supply chain management technology. Through an in-depth study of the causes of the supply chain terminal, combined with the actual problems caused by the COVID-19 epidemic, the theoretical system of supply chain breakage management is perfected.

(2) By studying supply chain management to reduce the impact of problems caused by supply chain interruption and theoretical improvement of supply chain interruption management, it can help enterprises in the entire supply chain to establish a more flexible supply chain. Enterprises can respond quickly and repair quickly, thereby reducing the risks and possible losses faced by enterprises.

2.2 Significance of Research of  how does supply chain management minimize troubles to the supply chain caused by public health emergent threats like COVID-19

Due to the severe epidemic, the consumption of some agricultural products, especially fresh agricultural products such as livestock and poultry, has dropped sharply, resulting in a prominent contradiction between supply and demand. Also, under the special prevention and control situation, many cities conduct closed management, and road closures increase the difficulty of logistics delivery. Even if some cities do not carry out closed management, major logistics express delivery has also stopped delivery; the logistics companies that cooperated with farmers have postponed the resumption of work during the epidemic, which has worsened the problem of slow sales of agricultural products sold by farmers around the world.

The impact of the pneumonia epidemic has led to large-scale shutdowns, increased difficulty in resuming work after the epidemic has been mitigated, and the transmission of upstream and downstream industrial chains. The impact of the epidemic on the manufacturing supply chain is also obvious. For example, in response to the new coronavirus pneumonia epidemic, automobile manufacturing and parts supply will be forced to stop due to the impact of the epidemic (Ivanov & Dolgui 2020). At present, many car companies have announced extended holidays and made plans to temporarily suspend production. The loss of labour caused by the outbreak of the COVID-19 epidemic has caused the risk of supply chain breakage for Bosch which is one of the world largest auto parts supplier (Marc et.al. 2018). Patrick Moorhead, an analyst at Moor Insights Strategy, an American investment company, believes that Apple’s supply chain will be disrupted by the new Coronary Pneumonia epidemic. Apple, which is mainly based in China, may face production disruptions.

Affected by the COVID-19 epidemic caused by the new coronavirus, the United States announced on January 31 that it would ban foreigners who had visited within 14 days. Other countries have also introduced relevant immigration control measures, and foreign airlines have also adjusted Chinese flight operations (FOSTER 2020). United Airlines, Air Canada, British Airways, Air France, Lufthansa Group, KLM, Iberia Airlines, etc. have reduced or suspended flights. Following the immigration control of various countries and the tightening of docking restrictions on foreign ships, India has significantly increased tariffs, Indonesia, Jordan, and Russia suspended the import of some commodities, and Vietnam issued a reminder to suspend cargo clearance. Overall, the grounding, suspension, rejection and tariff increase in the cross-border supply chain has had a serious impact on cross-border trade.

The COVID-19 epidemic has made some small and medium-sized enterprises more vulnerable to business pressure and challenges. On the one hand, after delaying the resumption of work, the cost of plant, land, loans, labour, etc. will increase, and the progress of order completion will be affected. Many originally planned investment and business activities have been shelved, and the effect will be amplified along the supply chain (McGEVNA et.al. 2020). On the other hand, the epidemic has caused companies to face problems such as unstable upstream and downstream demand, uncertain operating capacity, continuous decline in profit margins, and further intensified operating capital difficulties. If the cash reserves of small and medium-sized enterprises are difficult to support the expenses of enterprises in the longer epidemic period, some enterprises will face the risk of bankruptcy.

According to a survey report, through the questionnaire survey of 995 small and medium-sized enterprises, affected by the epidemic, 29.58% of enterprises are expected to reduce operating income by more than 50% in 2020, and 58.05% of enterprises will fall by more than 20%. At the same time, 85.01% of enterprises cannot survive for 3 months. If the epidemic persists for more than half a year, 90% of the companies will be unsustainable and will likely go out of business or go bankrupt. How to help small and medium enterprises to resist the crisis caused by the epidemic has become an important economic issue of global concern (Shi et.al. 2020).

2.2.1 Relevant Theoretical Research and Literature Review

In order to make the discussion in this article more convincing, it needs to be based on various academic documents. The basis of the thesis is a solid theoretical basis and a summary of previous literature research results. Relevant theory is to summarize the concepts, theories, models, etc. applied to the research topic, to provide theoretical basis and support for the research, and the correct use of the corresponding management analysis tools can help companies formulate scientific management standards. At the same time, the literature review helps to grasp the development of the theory, on this basis to form the views of this article.

When it comes to supply chain management, different practitioners have a completely different understanding of it. For people with an IT background, supply chain management is supply chain management software, the most known software are Oracle & SAP and other basic technical means.

The focus in the traditional supply chain concept is the integration of internal resources that exist in the internal chain of business operations. The supply chain defined by Harrison is defined as: “Supply chain is a functional network that performs the procurement of raw materials, converts them into intermediate products and finished products, and then sells the finished products to users.  Michael E. Porter proposed the definition of supply chain management in 1985. This definition refers to the production of products that are organically combined with suppliers, warehousing, manufacturers, distribution centres and channel suppliers. By using a set of structured transportation, distribution and sales management methods to meet certain consumer needs while reducing the cost of the entire supply chain.

Integrated Supply Chain Management of  how does supply chain management minimize troubles to the supply chain caused by public health emergent threats like COVID-19

In 1974, the famous American scholar Dr. Joseph Harrington first proposed the theory of Computer Integrated Manufacturing. This theory mainly includes:

(1) All aspects of enterprise production cannot be separated, but an inseparable whole, which needs to be considered as a whole. This whole includes all activities of enterprise operation: market research, product development, processing and production, operation management and after-sales.

(2) Information flow analysis collects, transfers and analyzes the data that occurs in this process. The material manifestation of the resulting data.

Integrated supply chain management ideas are gradually formed through practice and development of supply chain management theories (Atul Kumar Sahu, et.al 2018). Its core mainly refers to demand customization-planning integration-reorganization of business processes-work path composed of object-oriented management; custom strategy-sharing information-adjustment to adaptability-team creativity Constitute a strategic path; this requires that all entities in the same supply chain use the same set of information system architecture as much as possible, to achieve the greatest possible integration (Quan, Harold & Marjolein 2017).

Integrated supply chain management is widely valued in practice: its advantages are very obvious, including cost reduction, optimized and coordinated logistics management, supplier information sharing, and improved consumer satisfaction. In this way, the external resources of the supply chain are effectively integrated to achieve the role of optimizing the entire supply chain system, which is conducive to the rational use of resources and optimal allocation (Sawik 2018).

Similarity of  how does supply chain management minimize troubles to the supply chain caused by public health emergent threats like COVID-19

In today's extremely fragile supply chain, integrated supply chain systems are becoming increasingly important. Relying on the information system with the network and database as the core, we can ensure the integrity, accuracy and timeliness of the information. The use of information technology can effectively improve the dynamic characteristics of the supply chain, and it is convenient for enterprises to make timely and effective responses to corresponding fluctuations (Uemura Reche, et.al 2020). The information system changes the transmission of information from the original linear structure to a mesh structure. The entire supply chain can realize real-time information sharing, which eliminates information delay and shortens the length of the supply chain.

Difference of  how does supply chain management minimize troubles to the supply chain caused by public health emergent threats like COVID-19

Due to its situation and the influence of external factors, a bullwhip effect occurs in a supply chain composed of multiple nodes. The core company's application of timely production has led to its lack of centralized management capabilities and has lost the establishment of an integrated supply chain system (Bandaly, Satir & Shanker 2014). This will cause other entities in the same supply chain to inevitably use another supply chain system structure different from the core entity. This will inevitably cause upstream companies to be unable to share end-user demand information in real-time. When the user's demand information is transmitted from the downstream to the upstream of the supply chain, after several layers of filtering, the information will inevitably be deformed and misunderstood (Öztürk & Yildizbaşi 2020). This will lead to the distortion of market information and supply and demand information held by upstream companies. However, when the upstream industry of the supply chain interrupts the supply chain, downstream companies will lose control of the market due to lack of materials.

Limitations of  how does supply chain management minimize troubles to the supply chain caused by public health emergent threats like COVID-19

Although the application of an integrated supply chain system has been very extensive, it lacks flexibility and adaptability. In a crisis, when a supply chain entity is disconnected, it is difficult for the system to make predictions, respond and repair. Therefore, it is necessary to study this direction (Dias & Ierapetritou 2017).

2.2.2 Supply Chain Risk Management

Sawik believes that the purpose of supply chain risk management is to improve the effectiveness and robustness of supply chain operations in the face of different risk situations. The chain risk management framework can address flaws and flaws (Sawik 2017).

Supply chain risk management, as defined by Tang, is the maintenance of supply chain continuity and profitability through coordination and collaboration among supply chain members. Effective supply chain risk management keeps your supply chain safe and your costs down. And improve the efficiency of your supply chain. Scheibe and Blackhurst believe that supply chain risk management is the identification of internal supply chain risks and external supply chain risks and the appropriate steps taken to avoid or eliminate them (Scheibe & Blackhurst 2018).

Challenges and Limitations of  how does supply chain management minimize troubles to the supply chain caused by public health emergent threats like COVID-19

Most of the current research on supply chain risk management focuses on day-to-day operational risks, mainly in supply chain risk management, but this remains an issue in supply chain emergency management because of the impact of emergencies (Sawik 2019). It is very different from urgent risk. The supply chain has become more confused and is no longer directly connected to normal processing methods. At the same time, the main goal of current research is to find ways to assess risk in order to reduce its occurrence. However, in real-life situations, no matter how sophisticated the method is, many risks are unavoidable, especially in emergencies.

Research gap/what will the paper say of  how does supply chain management minimize troubles to the supply chain caused by public health emergent threats like COVID-19

According to the research, there are many kinds of research on how to deal with supply chain breaks. However, there is no detailed study on how to solve the supply chain breakage caused by the epidemic through flexible and operable supply chain management. This article will discuss and study the implementation of specific supply chain management techniques to forecast, deal with, and repair supply chain breakage (Bier, Lange & Glock 2020).

3.      Research Aim of  how does supply chain management minimize troubles to the supply chain caused by public health emergent threats like COVID-19

The research aims to figure out how supply chain management (SCM) could ease the troubles caused by emerging public health threats like COVID-19.

4.      Research Objectives of  how does supply chain management minimize troubles to the supply chain caused by public health emergent threats like COVID-19:

The key objective of the research is to figure out how supply chain management (SCM) could eliminate the problems caused by COVID-19.

This is being achieved through the following specific objectives

1. To Determine the corresponding functions and measures related to each SCM component and plan following the public health crisis.

2.         To Determine the general supply chain risk situation and measures and Analysis of similarities and differences with case

3.         To Determine the consequences of a public health crisis based on actual conditions and analyse whether common crisis management methods can solve the situation of the public health crisis.

5.      Research question of  how does supply chain management minimize troubles to the supply chain caused by public health emergent threats like COVID-19:

The research question that the research aims to address is as below

“How does supply chain management minimize troubles to the supply chain caused by public health emergent threats like COVID-19.”

6.      Research Methodology of  how does supply chain management minimize troubles to the supply chain caused by public health emergent threats like COVID-19

The research aims to find out how supply chain management (SCM) could minimise the disruption caused by public emergent health threats, such as COVID-19. Regarding the research question, our research is not based on numerical data. Therefore, we adopt qualitative research. Combing with the empirical literature, it is necessary to start with referencing the previous studies to justify the research question which is defined as ‘how SCM could minimise the disruption caused by public emergent health threat’s (Gibbs et al. 2007). After that, qualitative research defines the conceptual framework for the research and identifies relevant theories to analyse in this research (Gibbs et al. 2007).

6.1              Research Philosophy of  how does supply chain management minimize troubles to the supply chain caused by public health emergent threats like COVID-19

Due to the qualitative research, we adopt a subjective ontology and an interpretive epistemology. It pays more attention to participants' experiences and perspective. Ontology refers to the essence of real-life and its assumptions are focused on the experience of real-life and the nature of being (Scotland 2012). Epistemology refers to the essence of knowledge which is the form and the nature of knowledge and its assumptions are concerned with what the knowledge is and how it created (Cohen, Manion & Morrison 2007, pp. 7; Scotland 2012). Subject ontology indicates that the results are affected by human consciousness (Zachariadis, Scott ＆ Barrett 2013). In other words, because different people perceive things in different ways, the results may differ due to the subject factors.

Interpretivist epistemology advocates that cognition of the complex world is achieved by learning the experience of people living in the world (Scotland 2012). Researchers should go deeply into real life to understand and explain it through scientific prospective and rebuild concepts because interpretive epistemology is based on the real-life phenomenon (Scotland 2012). When understanding research philosophy better, we would have a holistic perspective for the research design which is concentrating on the research question.

This study concerns how SCM could reduce the interruption of the supply chain by the emergent pandemic. The main purpose of the research is to assistant supply chain to recover or rebuild its integration. Raw material suppliers, manufacturers, distributors, retailers, and consumers who involved in the life cycle of products and services are a significantly important part of the supply chain. Thus, the research is based on personal feelings and perspective of different people. Due to its speciality, subjective ontology is more suitable rather than objective ontology because researchers could only collect data from the participants who generate different human consciousness. Moreover, this research is to investigate how to use SCM to assist supply chain to prevent such situations like COVID-19. It requires many people related to the supply chain to find out ways to give their thoughts and ideas to researchers. Researchers need to record their viewpoints and sort it out. It does not require empirical evidence. Therefore interpretive epistemology is feasible. To summarise, a subjective ontology and an interpretive epistemology are used in this paper.

6.2              Research Strategy – Case Study of  how does supply chain management minimize troubles to the supply chain caused by public health emergent threats like COVID-19

In this study, the case study as the research strategy is selected. A case which could be an event, a group, an individual or an organization (Yin 2018). The case study could be the integration of the literature which investigate the present phenomenon (Yin 2018; Noor 2008). The case study enables researchers to analyse the real life's phenomenon from multiple sources of life context of the real world (Merriam 2002; Noor 2008; Farquhar, Michels & Robson 2020). It is created for researchers to analyse the phenomenon in-depth. The case study is intended to analysing the special issue instead of the entire organization (Noor 2008). Farquhar, Michels & Robson (2020) emphasize that the case study allows researchers to understand 'research objects' directly through learning strategically cases in the naturalistic environment. Flyvbjerg (2006) demonstrates that the main goal of the case study is to investigate what it is and how it could be in order to get different points of views from different people.

In this paper, the case study is suitable for our research question and aim. We conduct interviews as our main data collections methods which researchers need to collect participants' data face-to-face. The case study could enable our interviews more deeply and meticulously because we collect subjective viewpoints from participants. Moreover, the research could collect more related case studies made by other researchers. It leads researchers to think in-depth about the research question. When conducting a case study, researchers could gain more useful information from the limited data provided by interviewees. It gathers the collection of viewpoints of respondents to investigate how SCM could assist supply chain to minimise the disruption of the supply chain caused by emergent public health threats. Due to the research theme – ‘supply chain’, our participants are from different industries including suppliers, manufacturers, distributors, retailers, and consumers. Case study, as mentioned earlier, is suitable for researching a particular issue which is our research question. Therefore, a case study is an appropriate strategy for analysing how SCM helps supply chain to reduce disruption happened to the whole supply chain.

6.3              Research Design of  how does supply chain management minimize troubles to the supply chain caused by public health emergent threats like COVID-19

Since the 'object' of the case study should be typically and experimentally, our participants should be a small group in a particular place (Merriam 2002). The assumptive participants for interviews and observations, in this case, are people who are affected by pandemic related to the supply chain. Also, SCM is related to professional knowledge of management. Hence, interviewees should be at least managers who understand SCM. Thus, we select 15 managers from industries related to supply chain. Researchers then need to find suitable interviewees and ask them if they can participate in the interviews. During the contacting, researchers must tell them the purpose of the study. After that, it is our responsibility to arrange an interview date according to the research schedule and progress.

6.3.1        Data Collection Techniques – Interviews

Interviews are one of the most common data collection techniques which frequently used in both qualitative and quantitative research (Ryan, Coughlan & Cronin 2009). Structured interviews, semi-structured interviews and unstructured interviews are types of interviews (Gill et al. 2018). Structured interviews are predominated designed by researchers like questionnaires (Gill et al. 2018). It lists a lot of questions with little variations. The limitation of structured interviews is that there is no or little scope for the following preparations. For example, what if participants would like to take some questions more deeply. Compared to structured interviews, unstructured interviews are only a little or no predominated questions which starting with questions like ‘Could you please tell me what you think of supply chain management…’ (Gill et al. 2018). As a result, it is difficult for us to collect information from interviewees due to time-consuming and lack of guidance. Semi-structured interviews come with sufficient predominated questions with extent scope and also give interviewees space to discuss deeper on some questions (Gill et al. 2018). It is a combination of good features of structured and unstructured. It is flexible and enables respondents to explore more data about questions that researchers do not consider detailed (Tod 2010). Interviewers and interviewees could have a better atmosphere on several key questions. Hence, semi-structured is appropriate data collection method for this research.

The time frame of the interview is approximately 1-2 hour and it prefers individual rather than group interview. We start the interview with demographic questions because this type of questions is non-threatened and relaxed for interviewees (Ryan, Coughlan & Cronin 2009). After that, interviewers should give close-ended and open-ended to participants. Open-ended and probing questions could enable interviewers to discover more information (Ryan, Coughlan & Cronin 2009). The interview location should be comfortable places for our interviewees. As this is related to the supply chain, the location should be their workplace.

-Interview questions- general questions of  how does supply chain management minimize troubles to the supply chain caused by public health emergent threats like COVID-19

1.      What is your name?

2.      How long do you work as a manager?

3.      Have you heard of COVID-19?

- Interview questions- professional questions of  how does supply chain management minimize troubles to the supply chain caused by public health emergent threats like COVID-19

1.      Could you describe your routine before and after COVID-19?

2.      What kind of issues do you face during the period of COVID-19?

3.      Describe the most challenge thing about the disruption of the supply chain during COVID-19.

4.      How do you deal with such disruptions of supply chain caused by COVID-19?

5.      Could you explain what kind of supply chain management that applies to your company?

6.      What is your experience of using supply chain management?

7.      Do you think it helps your company reduce the risk and tell me why?

8.      Do you think supply chain management, to some extent, assist you and your company to get through of the challenging time?

9.      What do you think supply chain management could help your company to minimise disruptions due to COVID-19?

10.  Do low-level employees understand the concept of supply chain management? What do they think of it? It is effective or not?

11.  What aspect do you think supply chain management should improve?

12.  Will you continue to adopt more supply chain management tools in the future and why?

6.3.2        Data Analysis – Thematic Analysis of  how does supply chain management minimize troubles to the supply chain caused by public health emergent threats like COVID-19

Thematic analysis is broadly used to analyse qualitative data and refers to the process of recognition of themes and patterns (Fugard & Potts 2015; Maguire & Delahunt 2017). It is vital to use themes and patterns to analyse the phenomenon. Due to its features of flexibility, straightforward and usefulness, it is useful for conducting other data analysis. There are two types of thematic analysis including inductive analysis and theoretical analysis. The inductive analysis focuses on data while theoretical analysis emphasizes the researchers’ ideas of the topic (Braun & Clarke 2006). Moreover, there are two levels of themes which are sematic and latent. Sematic themes are surface meanings which interviewees said to interviewers and do not take it further (Braun & Clarke 2006). On the other hand, latent themes are opposite to the semantic themes. It begins to recognize or explore the deeper meanings of concepts, assumptions, and concepts as semantic content theory of data (Braun & Clarke 2006). In this research, we conduct inductive thematic analysis with latent level.

In this paper, to some extent, we analyse the experience after using supply chain management participants' viewpoints of how it could minimise the disruptions of the supply chain. It does not need professional knowledge about theories or techniques, thus, researchers are easy to understand and conduct. It is useful for researchers to emerge theme via the procedure of the research and the themes could drive to the significance of the research questions. It means SCM could not only minimise the disruptions of the supply chain but also increasing the efficiency of operations. Therefore, inductive analysis with latent level is appropriate for this research.

6.3.3        Discussion & Data Interpretation of  how does supply chain management minimize troubles to the supply chain caused by public health emergent threats like COVID-19

Many researchers make researches on how SCM manage risks. However, there are many types of risks under 'risk management' and these researches take little considerations about how SCM manages public health emergent threats like COVID-19. By using SCM handle such situation (disruption of the supply chain), companies can reduce risks and save operating costs. SCM is an integrated strategy that needs many companies' coordination. This is a large challenge for us to gather all information from the whole supply chain. Therefore, we need to collect more data and summarise them to useful information. It will give further researchers more understanding of issues.

6.3.4        Ethical Issues & Limitations of  how does supply chain management minimize troubles to the supply chain caused by public health emergent threats like COVID-19

Ethics is important for all research work. In this plan, our interviewees are managers. Hence, the confidentiality of business is much higher. An informed consent form is needed to be signed before the interview. Researchers need to ensure all participants are confidential for the interviews as well as the business core information (Creswell 2009). Before interviewing, researchers need to emphasize the importance of conduct of ethics. In this research, the sample size is small. It means we could not collect sufficient data for the research. The interviews are based on managers’ subject consciousness, hence, if they do not understand well on our questions, the collected information may be useless.

7.      Anticipated Outcomes of  how does supply chain management minimize troubles to the supply chain caused by public health emergent threats like COVID-19

The novel coronavirus has badly influenced the outcomes of the industrial sector. The manufacturing operations are unable to work properly in many countries. Although, the supply chain is critically influenced by the disruption in the supply chain management system. Somehow, other than the manufacturing sector the services sector is also facing challenging situations and critical issues because of the widespread of a novel coronavirus in all over the world. Considering these issues and expected outcomes of a pandemic or widely spreading diseases for public health emergent areas the research aims to investigate possible changes and disruption in the emergency management of healthcare sectors. The research aimed to explore public health emergent threats associated with this recent pandemic.

Considering the research aims and objectives in the focus the researchers will conduct all research activities. The research plan will be used as a guide for the selection of samples, data collection, literature review, and data analysis to conclude research findings. However, all efforts are to reach at the research findings which are expected to be used by the healthcare management and future researchers to understand the current situation of disruption by a coronavirus and possible public health emergent threats.

Based on the previously published literature and research studies by (Kros & Brown, 2013) and (Clauson, et al., 2018), some expected and anticipated outcomes of this research project are discussed here. According to the research outcomes, it can be said that the application of advanced technologies and techniques in the supply chain management enables the healthcare institutes to work properly in the uncertain environment. The blockchain technology saves time, reduces frauds, reduces the delay for paperwork, identify critical issues for advance management, and inventory management issues in the supply chain processes. The most common reasons for delay and inability to meet the deadline of supplies are the excessive time required by the paperwork and inappropriate details regarding inventory in the healthcare centres. Therefore, research expects that proper use of blockchain technology and information systems can be helpful for the healthcare supply chain management to avoid threats and disruption in supply chain process.

Considering the outcomes of similar research work published in research articles by (Paulraj & Chen, 2007)  and (Cohen & Roussel, 2013), environmental sustainability has a critical role in the application of strategic supply chain management and initiatives. In the case of uncertainties and pandemic, the demand factor also got changed for the supply chain intermediaries. Like in this research work, the demand for medicine will be rapidly increased to meet with emergencies. Although, because of lockdown transportation process is influenced in many areas. Thus, demand and probability of proper supplies are changed for the supply chain management. Following the research outcomes, the appropriate way to deal with such issues is operationalized strategic supply chain management. Demand uncertainly can be avoided by the proper support of strategic supply chain management in service sectors.

The research study will also provide information about possible approaches to reduce supply chain risk factors. According to previous research studies, decision support and communication technologies can be useful against public health emergencies in the healthcare sector to improve supply chain management system. The research outcomes will be also used in future to control and manage the disaster emergency logistics scheduling in the rescue scenario. It is expected that research findings will provide information about risk management based on the real experiences and knowledge of supply chain management experts in the healthcare sectors and supply chain intermediaries. The research will bring into light all internal and external environmental factors which can be utilized for identity and coordinating the strategic supply chain management system in such situation of emergency and uncertainties.

The public health emergent threats can be prevented by in-time treatment and delivery of proper medicine to the identified patients. The integrated crisis of supply chain can make the public health threats situation worse if effective decisions are not taken by the relevant officials and managers. The supply chain management with the use of advanced technologies and right decision-making process has potential to turn the negative outcomes of emergencies in the stabilized condition by the availability of all required products and services to deal with this situation. Although, unlocking available options for supply chain, staging, and deferral options can also strengthen the supply chain process to tract these identified challenges and propose a better solution.

The research findings and outcomes will be beneficial for healthcare management as it would enable them to understand how uncertainties create threats and draw impact on the normal business operations of the healthcare services. Moreover, expected research findings will also provide the advantage in risk management, planning future healthcare business operations, storing an inventory of equipment and medicines, decision-making process, and stabilizing in disasters. Somehow, other than healthcare managers the research will be also beneficial for the supply chain intermediaries of healthcare sectors. The suppliers deliver medicines and required equipment in healthcare centres such as private clinics and hospitals. Because of this emergency, the supply chain process is also impacted badly. Therefore, the research findings will be also helpful for these supply chain intermediaries to manage their shipment and freight process while considering the impact of uncertainties in the future as well which will increase profitability for these companies. Apart, research findings based on secondary and primary research data will also open a new pathway for future researchers. Future researchers researching uncertainties, emergency management, and risk management in healthcare sectors would be able to extract information and key findings of this research project to use in their literature review and to get guidance from previous research work.

8.      Timeline, Facilities, Budget of  how does supply chain management minimize troubles to the supply chain caused by public health emergent threats like COVID-19

In this section of the research plan, the timeline for the time allocation and schedules, facilities required by the research work, and overall budget are presented. The following timeline represents the allocated time duration for each activity to be held in the research project.

According to the above-presented timeline, the project will be started on June 1, 2020. Time is divided between key activities of the research project such as sampling, research data collection, literature review, data analysis, and writing of the whole thesis.

The research project will require some facilities for the appropriate completion of this research project. The following table is indicating the required facilities for this research project.

Facilities	Time duration
Access to recent journal articles and research database	For two month duration
Laptop and hardware	Whole research project
Statistical software for data analysis	Two-month duration
Recorders with battery + storage space	For the whole project length

 

Based on the estimation the following budget is developed for this research project. Each activity and item included in this budget as a direct contribution to the overall research budget.

Budget
Item	Unit	Per Unit Cost	Cost
Transportation Expense		$100	$100
Recorders	1	$50	$50
Software	2	$25	$50
Printing cost		$250	$250
Meeting Cost	4	$1,000	$4,000
Research Volunteers	350	$30	10500
Research Participants	350	$30	10500
Total Budget			$25,450

Considering the above table, the total estimated budget for this research project is $25,450.

9.      Conclusion of  how does supply chain management minimize troubles to the supply chain caused by public health emergent threats like COVID-19

To summarize, the research plan is about how to use SCM to reduce the disruptions of supply chain caused by emergent public health threats such as COVID-19 and figure out the significance of using SCM to prevent such situations. During the plan, we address the literature review and research gap which is why we conduct the research, then define the research aim and objectives. Furthermore, we demonstrate detailed about how to use the methodology to design the process of data collection. Finally, we determine the anticipated outcome, timeline, budget and budget.