Collaborative Research: Engineering Efficient and Equitable Food Distribution Under Uncertainty

合作研究：在不确定性下设计高效、公平的粮食分配

• 批准号: 1000828
• 负责人: Julie Ivy
• 金额: $ 19.75万
• 依托单位: North Carolina State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2010
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2010-05-01 至 2014-04-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1000828&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Engineering; Efficient; Equitable

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.

该赠款为开发决策模型提供了资金，以支持在食品分配的资源约束环境中的有效，公平的管理和供应分配。 虽然大多数人道主义供应链（HSC）相关的研究都集中在救济供应或供应中心的位置的分配和库存，但鲜明的对比，围绕捐赠管理的问题（即，征集，协调，分配和管理捐赠的商品，货币和服务，构成了对HSC的投入的捐赠，货币和服务）及其对下游救援者的影响，尤其是对下降措施的影响。这项研究的重点是（1）表征供体行为的预测模型的发展，（2）量化供应的可用性，（3）确定约束供应的公平分配。 这些模型将解释与捐赠管理相关的复杂性，例如供求的不确定性，需求通常超过供应；在适当的时间将货物交付给救济者的关键；由于自然和人造灾难引起的突然需求激增的出现；这项研究在改善非营利性救济机构的供应分配和捐赠管理方面为社会带来了可观的好处。表征捐助者行为并纳入平等分配供应的目标的能力使救济机构能够做出明智的库存和供应分配决策，并以战略性地针对捐赠招标。它还有可能使人道主义救济组织通过更有效地分配可用资源，从而影响人类生活，从而满足更大的需求。该研究通过将捐赠管理和粮食分配与供应链管理（库存政策）联系起来，解决了人道主义救济和工程的关键交集，并建立了在当今全球面临的公平满足需求，成本和人类成果方面，以解决人道主义救济的重大问题所必需的关系。