{"id":{"repo_id":"mit","oai_identifier":"oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/151327"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/mit/oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/151327","repository":{"repo_id":"mit","name":"MIT","base_url":"https://dspace.mit.edu/oai/request"},"display":{"title":"A Case Study of Project Management of COVID-19 Vaccination in Japan","abstract":"COVID-19 vaccination played a critical role in preventing the spread of the disease in the global pandemic. Research on operational mechanisms of COVID-19 vaccination projects is limited compared with the epidemiologic and socio-economic studies. Japan is a unique country with various operational information on COVID-19 vaccinations publicly available. This research evaluated vaccination trends in 49 countries and developed the model of vaccination trends in Japan to understand the operational mechanisms of national-scale projects. The international comparison revealed Japan’s slow vaccine authorizations and yet the 13th earliest and 3rd fastest to achieve the achievement of 70% full vaccination coverage. Globally comparing the daily vaccination trends exhibited a slow pace in Japan’s first 80 days of the vaccination project. The study found the different levels of ceiling effects of vaccine distributions on daily first-dose vaccinations by vaccine category in Japan. Based on the observations, the research developed a system dynamics model on vaccination trends with four operational factors: willing people to take vaccines, daily vaccine deliveries, vaccine stocks on sites, and human resource capacities. The model fit the actual 7-day smoothed daily vaccination trends with the R-squared of 0.943, 0.909, and 0.915 for the total, first, and second doses with Pfizer/BioNTech and Takeda/Moderna vaccines in the primary series in Japan. The simulation predicted cumulative vaccination trends with 70% coverage achievement period errors (percentage errors) of 10 days (4.24%), 12 days (5.41%), and 8 days (3.23%) for the total, first, and second doses, respectively. The developed model was applied to explore room for operational improvement in Japan for resource-saving and acceleration purposes. The experiment demonstrated the potential savings of over 20 thousand healthcare worker recruitments without vaccination delay due to vaccine supply constraints and by a modified team structure in sites with the higher nurse–doctor ratio of 3 or more. For acceleration purposes, the model estimated limited opportunities with human resource management under the vaccine supply constraints, only shortening the 70% full vaccination coverage period by 3 days. This research provides performance metrics and a simulation tool for model-based project planning and management applicable to future pandemics and public emergency responses by practitioners.","abstract_html":"COVID-19 vaccination played a critical role in preventing the spread of the disease in the global pandemic. Research on operational mechanisms of COVID-19 vaccination projects is limited compared with the epidemiologic and socio-economic studies. Japan is a unique country with various operational information on COVID-19 vaccinations publicly available. This research evaluated vaccination trends in 49 countries and developed the model of vaccination trends in Japan to understand the operational mechanisms of national-scale projects. The international comparison revealed Japan’s slow vaccine authorizations and yet the 13th earliest and 3rd fastest to achieve the achievement of 70% full vaccination coverage. Globally comparing the daily vaccination trends exhibited a slow pace in Japan’s first 80 days of the vaccination project. The study found the different levels of ceiling effects of vaccine distributions on daily first-dose vaccinations by vaccine category in Japan. Based on the observations, the research developed a system dynamics model on vaccination trends with four operational factors: willing people to take vaccines, daily vaccine deliveries, vaccine stocks on sites, and human resource capacities. The model fit the actual 7-day smoothed daily vaccination trends with the R-squared of 0.943, 0.909, and 0.915 for the total, first, and second doses with Pfizer/BioNTech and Takeda/Moderna vaccines in the primary series in Japan. The simulation predicted cumulative vaccination trends with 70% coverage achievement period errors (percentage errors) of 10 days (4.24%), 12 days (5.41%), and 8 days (3.23%) for the total, first, and second doses, respectively. The developed model was applied to explore room for operational improvement in Japan for resource-saving and acceleration purposes. The experiment demonstrated the potential savings of over 20 thousand healthcare worker recruitments without vaccination delay due to vaccine supply constraints and by a modified team structure in sites with the higher nurse–doctor ratio of 3 or more. For acceleration purposes, the model estimated limited opportunities with human resource management under the vaccine supply constraints, only shortening the 70% full vaccination coverage period by 3 days. This research provides performance metrics and a simulation tool for model-based project planning and management applicable to future pandemics and public emergency responses by practitioners.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Majima, Eishi"],"institution":"Massachusetts Institute of Technology","degree_name":"Master","degree_level":null,"degree_discipline":null,"degree_department":"System Design and Management Program.","school":null,"contributors":[],"advisors":["Moser, Bryan R."],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2023,"date_issued":"2023-06","date_published":"2023-06","updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:20:53Z","subjects":[],"languages":[],"rights":["In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted","Copyright retained by author(s)"],"rights_urls":["https://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-EDU/1.0/"],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/151327","outbound_label":"Handle","outbound_source":"dc:identifier.uri"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor.advisor","label":"Advisor","values":["Moser, Bryan R."]},{"key":"dc:contributor.department","label":"Department","values":["System Design and Management Program."]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Majima, Eishi"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.accessioned","label":"Dc Date Accessioned","values":["2023-07-31T19:31:33Z"]},{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2023-07-31T19:31:33Z"]},{"key":"dc:date.issued","label":"Date","values":["2023-06"]},{"key":"dc:publisher","label":"Institution","values":["Massachusetts Institute of Technology"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["Thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Master","Master of Science in Engineering and Management"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted","Copyright retained by author(s)"]},{"key":"dc:rights.uri","label":"Rights URI","values":["https://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-EDU/1.0/"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier.uri","label":"Identifier URI","values":["https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/151327"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["COVID-19 vaccination played a critical role in preventing the spread of the disease in the global pandemic. Research on operational mechanisms of COVID-19 vaccination projects is limited compared with the epidemiologic and socio-economic studies. Japan is a unique country with various operational information on COVID-19 vaccinations publicly available. This research evaluated vaccination trends in 49 countries and developed the model of vaccination trends in Japan to understand the operational mechanisms of national-scale projects. The international comparison revealed Japan’s slow vaccine authorizations and yet the 13th earliest and 3rd fastest to achieve the achievement of 70% full vaccination coverage. Globally comparing the daily vaccination trends exhibited a slow pace in Japan’s first 80 days of the vaccination project. The study found the different levels of ceiling effects of vaccine distributions on daily first-dose vaccinations by vaccine category in Japan. Based on the observations, the research developed a system dynamics model on vaccination trends with four operational factors: willing people to take vaccines, daily vaccine deliveries, vaccine stocks on sites, and human resource capacities. The model fit the actual 7-day smoothed daily vaccination trends with the R-squared of 0.943, 0.909, and 0.915 for the total, first, and second doses with Pfizer/BioNTech and Takeda/Moderna vaccines in the primary series in Japan. The simulation predicted cumulative vaccination trends with 70% coverage achievement period errors (percentage errors) of 10 days (4.24%), 12 days (5.41%), and 8 days (3.23%) for the total, first, and second doses, respectively. The developed model was applied to explore room for operational improvement in Japan for resource-saving and acceleration purposes. The experiment demonstrated the potential savings of over 20 thousand healthcare worker recruitments without vaccination delay due to vaccine supply constraints and by a modified team structure in sites with the higher nurse–doctor ratio of 3 or more. For acceleration purposes, the model estimated limited opportunities with human resource management under the vaccine supply constraints, only shortening the 70% full vaccination coverage period by 3 days. This research provides performance metrics and a simulation tool for model-based project planning and management applicable to future pandemics and public emergency responses by practitioners."]},{"key":"dc:description.degree","label":"Dc Description Degree","values":["S.M."]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["A Case Study of Project Management of COVID-19 Vaccination in Japan"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor.advisor":["Moser, Bryan R."],"dc:contributor.department":["System Design and Management Program."],"dc:creator":["Majima, Eishi"],"dc:date.accessioned":["2023-07-31T19:31:33Z"],"dc:date.available":["2023-07-31T19:31:33Z"],"dc:date.issued":["2023-06"],"dc:description.abstract":["COVID-19 vaccination played a critical role in preventing the spread of the disease in the global pandemic. Research on operational mechanisms of COVID-19 vaccination projects is limited compared with the epidemiologic and socio-economic studies. Japan is a unique country with various operational information on COVID-19 vaccinations publicly available. This research evaluated vaccination trends in 49 countries and developed the model of vaccination trends in Japan to understand the operational mechanisms of national-scale projects. The international comparison revealed Japan’s slow vaccine authorizations and yet the 13th earliest and 3rd fastest to achieve the achievement of 70% full vaccination coverage. Globally comparing the daily vaccination trends exhibited a slow pace in Japan’s first 80 days of the vaccination project. The study found the different levels of ceiling effects of vaccine distributions on daily first-dose vaccinations by vaccine category in Japan. Based on the observations, the research developed a system dynamics model on vaccination trends with four operational factors: willing people to take vaccines, daily vaccine deliveries, vaccine stocks on sites, and human resource capacities. The model fit the actual 7-day smoothed daily vaccination trends with the R-squared of 0.943, 0.909, and 0.915 for the total, first, and second doses with Pfizer/BioNTech and Takeda/Moderna vaccines in the primary series in Japan. The simulation predicted cumulative vaccination trends with 70% coverage achievement period errors (percentage errors) of 10 days (4.24%), 12 days (5.41%), and 8 days (3.23%) for the total, first, and second doses, respectively. The developed model was applied to explore room for operational improvement in Japan for resource-saving and acceleration purposes. The experiment demonstrated the potential savings of over 20 thousand healthcare worker recruitments without vaccination delay due to vaccine supply constraints and by a modified team structure in sites with the higher nurse–doctor ratio of 3 or more. For acceleration purposes, the model estimated limited opportunities with human resource management under the vaccine supply constraints, only shortening the 70% full vaccination coverage period by 3 days. This research provides performance metrics and a simulation tool for model-based project planning and management applicable to future pandemics and public emergency responses by practitioners."],"dc:description.degree":["S.M."],"dc:identifier.uri":["https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/151327"],"dc:publisher":["Massachusetts Institute of Technology"],"dc:rights":["In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted","Copyright retained by author(s)"],"dc:rights.uri":["https://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-EDU/1.0/"],"dc:title":["A Case Study of Project Management of COVID-19 Vaccination in Japan"],"dc:type":["Thesis"],"thesis:degree_name":["Master","Master of Science in Engineering and Management"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:20:53Z"}