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PurposeDue to the introduction of new vaccines in the child immunization program and inefficient vaccine supply chain (VSC), the universal immunization program (UIP), India is struggling to provide a full schedule of vaccination to the targeted children. In this paper, the authors investigate the critical factors for improving the performance of the existing VSC system by implementing the next-generation vaccine supply chain (NGVSC) in India.Design/methodology/approachThe authors design a fuzzy multi-criteria framework using a fuzzy analytical hierarchical process (FAHP) and fuzzy multi-objective optimization on the basis of ratio analysis (FMOORA) to identify and analyze the critical barriers and enablers for the implementation of NGVSC. Further, the authors carry out a numerical simulation to validate the model.FindingsThe outcome of the analysis contends that demand forecasting is the topmost supply chain barrier and sustainable financing is the most important/critical enabler to facilitate the implementation of the NGVSC. In addition, the simulation reveals that the results of the study are reliable.Social implicationsThe findings of the study can be useful for the child immunization policymakers of India and other developing countries to design appropriate strategies for improving existing VSC performance by implementing the NGVSC.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors’ knowledge, the study is the first empirical study to propose the improvement of VSC performance by designing the NGVSC.

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