The fuel multiplier in multi-stage supply chains

Abstract

Fuel requirements on the battlefield impose direct costs associated with the resources necessary to transport the fuel and protect logistics assets, in addition to indirect energy security costs. Estimating the enterprise-wide demand for fuel associated with fuel consumption on the battlefield is a challenging, but necessary, step to making good decisions. This paper presents a modeling framework for estimating the enterprise-wide fuel requirements associated with a multistage fuel supply chain, demonstrating a multiplicative increase in fuel demand with additional stages, and examining the fuel impact of protecting the supply chain.

Complexity and Self-Sustainment in Disaster Response Supply Chains

“…This result demonstrates the multiplier effect. The multiplier for a given stage is an increasing and convex function of distance (Regnier et al, 2015). As we will observe shortly, it also depends on characteristics of the supply vehicles.…”

“…The impact of self‐sustainment for logistics activities and the fully burdened cost associated with it is described by Regnier et al. (), which introduces terms such as ‘self‐sustaining supply networks’ and ‘fuel multiplier.’ The underestimation of the costs in one particular resource—fuel—is critical to the United States Department of Defense.…”

“…Researchers (Dubbs, 2011;Regnier & Nussbaum, 2011;Hathorn, 2013) have identified the multiplicative effects of additional transportation distance and additional stages on cost in such situations. Self-sustaining supply chains occur commonly in military operations in austere environments, particularly in the early stages (Regnier et al, 2015).…”

“…To measure the cost incurred as a function of the level of complexity in a self-sustaining supply chain, it is important to be able to compute the 'real' fully burdened cost of resources as they are consumed and distributed across the supply chain. The impact of self-sustainment for logistics activities and the fully burdened cost associated with it is described by Regnier et al (2015), which introduces terms such as 'self-sustaining supply networks' and 'fuel multiplier.' The underestimation of the costs in one particular resource-fuel-is critical to the United States Department of Defense.…”

An application of the multiple knapsack problem: The self-sufficient marine

“…The ability to share resources is a key factor in SS. The availability of supply locally and the timing of availability of organic (USMC-owned) supply chains ( Regnier, Simon, Nussbaum, & Whitney, 2015 ) determine the degree to which resource demands must be met internally and thus the duration and degree of SS required. SS is also dependent on the operating environment, which affects the requirements for both consumable resources such as water and non-consumable resources such as protective equipment.…”