How COVID-19 Affected the Italian Personal Protective Equipment Supply Chain: An Empirical Analysis
<i>Background:</i> Personal Protective Equipment supply chains encountered severe shortages during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. Many manufacturers are located in China, the first country that issued lockdowns, and Personal Protective Equipment inventories, managed by the Just in Time poli...
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MDPI AG
2025-02-01
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| author | Anna Corinna Cagliano Antonio Carlin Carlo Rafele Chiara Campanale |
| author_facet | Anna Corinna Cagliano Antonio Carlin Carlo Rafele Chiara Campanale |
| author_sort | Anna Corinna Cagliano |
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| description | <i>Background:</i> Personal Protective Equipment supply chains encountered severe shortages during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. Many manufacturers are located in China, the first country that issued lockdowns, and Personal Protective Equipment inventories, managed by the Just in Time policy, were unprepared for such a demand surge. The existing literature examines the impacts of COVID-19 on the global Personal Protective Equipment supply chain. However, five years after the onset of COVID-19, there is still a lack of studies focusing on Personal Protective Equipment supply chain behavior in Italy. Italy is a particularly significant case study, as it was the first Western country to be severely impacted by the pandemic. This work develops an empirical analysis to answer the following research questions. How did the main variables in the Italian Personal Protective Equipment supply chain change during the early stages of the pandemic? How can we explain such changes? <i>Methods</i>: A questionnaire survey was carried out among producers, importers, and distributors of Personal Protective Equipment operating in Italy. The responses to the questionnaire were analyzed by applying both descriptive statistics and the Kruskal–Wallis test. <i>Results</i>: The findings indicate that importers and distributors experienced more significant increases in orders than producers after the first lockdown, due to the new manufacturer’s setup period before full-scale operations. <i>Conclusions</i>: The study might encourage examinations of how material management strategies aimed at reducing inventory can impact situations involving unanticipated increases in demand. Moreover, it offers insights into the causes and consequences of the criticalities faced by the Italian Personal Protective Equipment supply chain during the first pandemic phases, contributing to creating knowledge that might be useful to define strategies to enhance supply chain resilience. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-e207f248a7f94282bd91729a60f78479 |
| institution | DOAJ |
| issn | 2305-6290 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-02-01 |
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| series | Logistics |
| spelling | doaj-art-e207f248a7f94282bd91729a60f784792025-08-20T02:51:03ZengMDPI AGLogistics2305-62902025-02-01911910.3390/logistics9010019How COVID-19 Affected the Italian Personal Protective Equipment Supply Chain: An Empirical AnalysisAnna Corinna Cagliano0Antonio Carlin1Carlo Rafele2Chiara Campanale3Department of Management and Production Engineering, Politecnico di Torino, 10129 Torino, ItalyDepartment of Management and Production Engineering, Politecnico di Torino, 10129 Torino, ItalyDepartment of Management and Production Engineering, Politecnico di Torino, 10129 Torino, ItalyDepartment of Management and Production Engineering, Politecnico di Torino, 10129 Torino, Italy<i>Background:</i> Personal Protective Equipment supply chains encountered severe shortages during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. Many manufacturers are located in China, the first country that issued lockdowns, and Personal Protective Equipment inventories, managed by the Just in Time policy, were unprepared for such a demand surge. The existing literature examines the impacts of COVID-19 on the global Personal Protective Equipment supply chain. However, five years after the onset of COVID-19, there is still a lack of studies focusing on Personal Protective Equipment supply chain behavior in Italy. Italy is a particularly significant case study, as it was the first Western country to be severely impacted by the pandemic. This work develops an empirical analysis to answer the following research questions. How did the main variables in the Italian Personal Protective Equipment supply chain change during the early stages of the pandemic? How can we explain such changes? <i>Methods</i>: A questionnaire survey was carried out among producers, importers, and distributors of Personal Protective Equipment operating in Italy. The responses to the questionnaire were analyzed by applying both descriptive statistics and the Kruskal–Wallis test. <i>Results</i>: The findings indicate that importers and distributors experienced more significant increases in orders than producers after the first lockdown, due to the new manufacturer’s setup period before full-scale operations. <i>Conclusions</i>: The study might encourage examinations of how material management strategies aimed at reducing inventory can impact situations involving unanticipated increases in demand. Moreover, it offers insights into the causes and consequences of the criticalities faced by the Italian Personal Protective Equipment supply chain during the first pandemic phases, contributing to creating knowledge that might be useful to define strategies to enhance supply chain resilience.https://www.mdpi.com/2305-6290/9/1/19personal protective equipmentsupply chainCOVID-19 pandemicquestionnaire surveyKruskal–Wallis testItaly |
| spellingShingle | Anna Corinna Cagliano Antonio Carlin Carlo Rafele Chiara Campanale How COVID-19 Affected the Italian Personal Protective Equipment Supply Chain: An Empirical Analysis Logistics personal protective equipment supply chain COVID-19 pandemic questionnaire survey Kruskal–Wallis test Italy |
| title | How COVID-19 Affected the Italian Personal Protective Equipment Supply Chain: An Empirical Analysis |
| title_full | How COVID-19 Affected the Italian Personal Protective Equipment Supply Chain: An Empirical Analysis |
| title_fullStr | How COVID-19 Affected the Italian Personal Protective Equipment Supply Chain: An Empirical Analysis |
| title_full_unstemmed | How COVID-19 Affected the Italian Personal Protective Equipment Supply Chain: An Empirical Analysis |
| title_short | How COVID-19 Affected the Italian Personal Protective Equipment Supply Chain: An Empirical Analysis |
| title_sort | how covid 19 affected the italian personal protective equipment supply chain an empirical analysis |
| topic | personal protective equipment supply chain COVID-19 pandemic questionnaire survey Kruskal–Wallis test Italy |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2305-6290/9/1/19 |
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