Collaborative Research: Engineering Efficient and Equitable Food Distribution Under Uncertainty

这笔赠款为开发决策模型提供资金，以支持在资源有限的粮食分配环境中有效和公平地管理和分配供应。与人道主义供应链（HSC）相关的大多数研究都集中在救援物资的分配和储存或供应中心的位置上，与之形成鲜明对比的是，围绕捐赠管理（即捐赠物资、资金和服务的征集、协调、分配和管理）及其对下游救济受援国的影响的问题，特别是食品分配问题，尚未得到探讨。本研究的重点是开发预测模型，以(1)表征捐赠者行为，(2)量化供应可用性，(3)确定受限供应的公平分配。这些模型将考虑到与捐赠管理相关的复杂性，例如供需的不确定性，需求往往超过供应；在正确的时间向受援者运送物资的重要性；自然灾害和人为灾害导致需求突然激增；捐赠物品的易腐性。本研究在改善非牟利救援机构的物资分配和捐赠管理方面，对社会有实质的效益。能够描述捐助者的行为并将公平分配供应的目标纳入其中，使救济机构能够做出明智的库存和供应分配决定，并有战略地针对捐赠请求。它也有可能使人道主义救济组织通过更有效地分配现有资源来满足更大的需求，从而影响人的生活。该研究通过将捐赠管理和食品分配与供应链管理（库存政策）联系起来，解决了人道主义救济与工程的关键交叉点，并建立了一种必要的关系，以解决人道主义救济中公平满足需求、成本和人类成果方面的重大问题。

This grant provides funding for the development of decision models to support the efficient and equitable management and distribution of supply in the resource constrained environment of food distribution. While most Humanitarian Supply Chain (HSC) related research has focused on the distribution and stocking of relief supplies or location of supply centers, in sharp contrast, issues surrounding donations management (i.e., the solicitation, coordination, distribution and management of donated goods, money and services that form inputs into the HSC) and its impact on the downstream relief recipient have been unexplored, particularly for food distribution. This research focuses on the development of predictive models to (1) characterize donor behavior, (2) quantify supply availability and (3) determine the equitable allocation of constrained supply. The models will account for the complexities associated with donations management such as uncertainty in both supply and demand, with demand often exceeding supply; the criticality of delivering goods to relief recipients at the right time; the appearance of sudden demand surges due to natural and manmade disasters; and perishability of donated items.This research offers substantial benefits to society in terms of improved supply allocation and donations management for non-profit relief agencies. The ability to characterize donor behavior and incorporate the objective of equitably distributing supply enables relief agencies to make informed inventory and supply allocation decisions and strategically target donation solicitations. It also has the potential to enable humanitarian relief organizations to satisfy greater demand by more efficiently allocating available resources, thus impacting human life. The research addresses the critical intersection of humanitarian relief and engineering by linking donations management and food distribution to supply chain management (inventory policy) and forges a relationship necessary to address the significant issues in humanitarian relief in terms of equitable satisfaction of need, cost and human outcomes faced worldwide today.