Humanitarian Logistics Projects
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Pre-event Planning
- Design of a Centrally Managed Stockpiling System to Support Refugees and IDPs at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
- Pre-Positioning of Emergency Items Worldwide for CARE International
- Heart To Heart International Operations Study
- Ocean Carrier Bid Optimization for the Next Wave Agency at USAID Transportation Procurement Auctions
- World Food Programme Supply Chain Redesign
- Developing a Cost Allocation Model for the Recently Proposed Centralized Information Technology Structure at the World Food Programme
- Improving transportation procurement at MedShare International
Response
Post-event Recovery
Infectious Disease/Health
- Improving Malaria Interventions in Africa for the World Health Organization
- Modeling Influenza Pandemic and Strategies for Food Distribution in collaboration with the American Red Cross
- Modeling and Analysis of Impact of Campaigns to Reduce Impact of Measles
- Catch-up Scheduling Tool for Childhood Vaccination in collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
- Improving Vaccine Supply Chain at the Pan American Health Organization
Industry
- When Disaster Strikes: Lessons from Logistics at The Home Depot
- When Disaster Strikes: Lessons from Logistics at Waffle House
Design of a Centrally Managed Stockpiling System to Support Refugees and IDPs at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
Organization: United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
Project Topic: Prepositioning of Inventory Worldwide
Project Description:
UNHCR protects refugees and internally displaced persons. Under the current configuration, each field operation sets the number of items to order, and UNHCR’s Supply Management Service (SMS) receives their request and focuses on the procurement and delivery of these items. The project consisted of designing a centrally managed stockpiling system to support refugees aided by UNHCR. Such design includes a location model that determines the optimal number and locations of warehouses, an inventory management tool that determines the amount of relief supplies to be stocked at each warehouse, and an implementation plan. The proposed strategy results in a significant reduction of costs, lead times and stock-outs.
* Project travel supported by the Bradley-Turner Servant Leadership funds from the Institute for Leadership and Entrepreneurship
Further Information:
Contact the Center for Humanitarian Logistics by email: humlog@isye.gatech.edu
Pre-Positioning of Emergency Items Worldwide for CARE International
Organization: CARE International
Project Topic: Prepositioning of Inventory Worldwide
Project Description:
CARE is a leading humanitarian organization fighting poverty and enhancing human dignity. CARE also provides relief aid to survivors of disasters. During and after a major disaster, large quantities of supplies are needed to provide relief aid. The shortage of supplies may cause emergency response to be ineffective and result in increased human suffering. Until recently, CARE carried out most of the activities involved in mobilizing the supplies after a disaster occurred. In this project, we developed a model to evaluate the effect of relief items pre-positioning on CARE's average emergency response time. We identified the cost-benefit trade-off between different number of prepositioning warehouses and response time. The proposed network configurations minimize the average response time, given an initial investment.
Further Information:
CARE Prepositioning of Inventory paper
Contact the Center for Humanitarian Logistics by email: humlog@isye.gatech.edu
Heart To Heart International Operations Study
Organization: Heart to Heart (HHI)
Project Topic: Prepositioning of Inventory Worldwide
Project Description:
Heart to Heart International (HHI) is a leading global humanitarian organization that works to improve health and to respond to the needs of disaster victims worldwide. HHI gets most of its supplies by gift-in-kind donations. Today, all donations have to go first to the Global Distribution Center (GDC), then to Forward Response Centers (FRC) when supplies are demanded. A model was developed to find optimal locations for HHI FRCs. Simulations also were run to find the impact of propositioning inventory for specific items in such FRCs, instead of being supplied by the GDC when solicited. Results indicate that the proposed network and inventory allocation would increase the ability of Heart to Heart International to respond to fast-onset disasters.
Further Information:
Contact the Center for Humanitarian Logistics by email: humlog@isye.gatech.edu
Ocean Carrier Bid Optimization for the Next Wave Agency at USAID Transportation Procurement Auctions
Organization: Next Wave Agency
Project Topic: Carrier Bid Optimization
Project Description:
Every month, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) publish an invitation to procure transportation for food commodities to destinations around the world as part of their Food for Peace program. Next Wave Agency is a ship brokerage and supply chain consulting firm. It focuses on finding, pricing, and winning government contracts for the shipment of international food aid. A bid price forecasting model together with a bid optimization tool that is based on simulating the USDA’s process of awarding contracts were developed. Implementation of such tools will allow maximizing revenues for Next Wave’s clients.
Further Information:
Contact the Center for Humanitarian Logistics by email: humlog@isye.gatech.edu
World Food Programme Supply Chain Redesign
Organization: World Food Programme (WFP)
Project Topic: Prepositioning of Inventory Worldwide
Project Description:
WFP is the United Nations frontline agency in the fight against global hunger. Its logistics operations suffer from low service levels and high logistics and procurement costs. The proposed redesign includes inventory pre-positioning using regional depots and an inventory management tool. Implementation of these models’ results would allow transforming a reactive supply chain into a proactive one, reducing costs and lead times, and improving service levels.
Further Information:
Contact the Center for Humanitarian Logistics by email: humlog@isye.gatech.edu
Developing a Cost Allocation Model for the Recently Proposed Centralized Information Technology Structure at the World Food Programme
Organization: World Food Programme (WFP)
Project Topic: Cost Allocation for a Centralized Service
Project Description:
WFP is the United Nations food assistance arm. It provides the logistics support to get food to the right people, at the right time and in the right place. Currently, WFP’s ICT (Information and Communication Technology) support model is a structure where each single Country Office maintains a technical support team, resulting in limited scope, uneven distribution of resources and support quality, and an inefficient global roll-out of applications. WFP plans to implement a new centralized model that would exploit the benefit of global teamwork through Service and Competency Centres (SCC). To operate the global SCCs, a model for allocating the SCCs costs must be developed. This model will address issues such as costing the provided services, allocating the costs to the relevant Country Offices, and locating the SCCs optimally.
Further Information:
Contact the Center for Humanitarian Logistics by email: humlog@isye.gatech.edu
Improving transportation procurement at MedShare International
Organization: MedShare International
Project Topic: Transportation Procurement
Project Description:
MedShare International is a nonprofit organization that seeks to improve healthcare through the efficient recovery and redistribution of surplus medical supplies and equipment from U.S. hospitals, manufacturers and distributors. MedShare shipments are carefully tailored to the needs of recipient organizations worldwide. Transportation services are procured when needed from the cheapest carrier at the moment, resulting in high costs and low service quality. This project consists of developing a long-term strategy for procuring transportation services that will enable the organization to maximize its resources, taking into account its current locations and future growth strategy. Contractual agreements with strategic shipping partners and collaboration with other similar organizations for procuring transportation services are evaluated.
Further Information:
MedShare International Website
Contact the Center for Humanitarian Logistics by email: humlog@isye.gatech.edu
Atlanta-Fulton County Emergency Management Agency Emergency Water Distribution Plan for Atlanta
Organization: Atlanta-Fulton County Emergency Management Agency (AFCEMA)
Project Topic: Water Distribution during a Drought
Project Description:
The Atlanta-Fulton County Emergency Management Agency is the primary emergency management agency for Fulton County and Atlanta. When water resources that serve this area fell to historical low levels, AFCEMA acknowledged the need of a plan to distribute water during the potential drought. An emergency water distribution plan was developed. This plan includes indentifying the optimal location of Logistic Staging Areas (LSA) for pre-event staging and inventory buffering, and Points of Distributions (POD) that would serve the entire Fulton County’s population. Trade-off between service level and implementation costs was analyzed. The solution also includes layout and processes design, as well as labor scheduling and water replenishment planning tools for the PODs.
Further Information:
AFCEMA Emergency Water Distribution Plan for Atlanta presentation
AFCEMA Website
Contact the Center for Humanitarian Logistics by email: humlog@isye.gatech.edu
Atlanta-Fulton County Emergency Management Agency Post-Disaster Debris Collection Logistics
Organization: Atlanta-Fulton County Emergency Management Agency (AFCEMA)
Project Topic: Debris Collection Logistics
Project Description:
The Atlanta-Fulton County Emergency Management Agency is the primary emergency management agency for Fulton County and Atlanta. On March 2008, a tornado hit downtown Atlanta leaving different kinds of debris strewn in the streets. Post-disaster debris collection operations are in general not planed in advance and are done in an ad-hoc way after an event. AFCEMA recognized the need of a debris collection and management plan after the hardships faced recovering from the tornados. Tactical and operational plans are developed for removing debris in a timely manner with limited resources.
Further Information:
Contact the Center for Humanitarian Logistics by email: humlog@isye.gatech.edu
Improving Malaria Interventions in Africa for the World Health Organization
Organization: World Health Organization (WHO)
Project Topic: Deployment of Malaria Prevention Interventions
Project Description:
World Health Organization is the authority for health within the United Nations (UN), and it is responsible for providing leadership to all UN member nations on global health matters. Malaria is a significant problem in Africa, with over one million deaths though the disease is preventable. Countries and non-governmental organizations conduct prevention interventions, but there are few guidelines about how best to deploy scarce resources such as facilities, labor, insecticide and bednets. In this study, optimization models were built to maximize the reduction in risk under a limited budget, through a better location of distribution facilities and an optimal deployment plan, with Swaziland used as a pilot country. The estimated benefit of the systems approach is 20 – 70% over simple decision making models, with the potential for saving hundreds of thousands of lives across Africa.
* Project travel supported by the Bradley-Turner Servant Leadership funds from the Institute for Leadership and Entrepreneurship
Further Information:
WHO Resource Allocation for Malaria Prevention presentation
Contact the Center for Humanitarian Logistics by email: humlog@isye.gatech.edu
Modeling Influenza Pandemic and Strategies for Food Distribution in collaboration with the American Red Cross
Organization: American Red Cross
Project Topic: Strategies for Food Distribution during Pandemic Influenza
Project Description:
Many experts believe that a pandemic influenza will hit the world in the near future given the flu epidemics that happened in the last century. Governments and non governmental organizations prepare response plans, but most preparation has focused on developing vaccine manufacturing, stockpiling antivirals and vaccines, etc. In collaboration with the American Red Cross, a study is conducted in the logistics side of the problem, specifically, food distribution logistics during a pandemic influenza. For this purpose, a disease spread model was developed. This model assists in estimating the number of infected individuals across time and geographical region using publicly available data with the state of Georgia as an initial pilot. The spread model determines the food needs, which is followed by a Dynamic Update Approach that integrates this disease spread model and a facility location model for opening food distribution facilities. Ongoing work includes analysis of interventions involving social distancing, school closures, vaccines strategies, along with impact of factor such as seasonality and virus mutation.
Further Information:
Modeling Influenza Pandemic and Strategies for Food Distribution presentation
Modeling Influenza Pandemic and Strategies for Food Distribution poster
Operations Researchers Predict Path of Pandemics article and video
Contact the Center for Humanitarian Logistics by email: humlog@isye.gatech.edu
Modeling and Analysis of Impact of Campaigns to Reduce Impact of Measles
Organization:
Project Topic: Modeling and Analysis of Impact of Campaigns
Project Description:
Among the existing infectious diseases, measles has been a major cause of health concerns worldwide, specially in developing countries. It is important to develop robust vaccination strategies that can produce the maximum impact. Currently deterministic simulation models are used to evaluate preventive strategies. However, these models may not be adequate for eradicating measles. Therefore, a stochastic individual-based model is developed to estimate the infection and mortality of measles and its geographical spread, given a vaccination strategy. Results of the model are then used to determine with more accuracy the optimal combination of vaccination options in terms of measles eradication, hence a better vaccination strategy.
Further Information:
Contact the Center for Humanitarian Logistics by email: humlog@isye.gatech.edu
Catch-up Scheduling Tool for Childhood Vaccination in collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Organization: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
Project Topic: Personalized Catch-up Immunization Schedules Tool
Project Description:
CDC is a component of the US Department of Health and Human Services. Its mission is to create the expertise, information, and tools that people need to protect their health. With the goal of ensuring timely and accurate administration of vaccines, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) of the CDC together with the AAP and the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) annually publish a recommended immunization schedule for children aged 0 to 6 years. For a child who misses the recommended time for a dose, a healthcare professional faces the challenging task of constructing a catch-up schedule for that child under certain rules and guidelines for the administration of the remaining doses. Although most school going children in the United States that are six years and over are deemed covered against vaccine preventable diseases, most do not receive the optimal protection due to incomplete, untimely or erroneous vaccination. We developed an easy-to-use decision support tool to help care-takers and providers make timely and accurate decisions with regards to childhood vaccination.
Further Information:
Catch-up Scheduling for Childhood Vaccination paper
Catch-up Scheduling for Childhood Vaccination poster
Catch-up Immunization scheduler on CDC Webpage
Ivanhoe Broadcast News article and video
USA News & World Report Article
Contact the Center for Humanitarian Logistics by email: humlog@isye.gatech.edu
Improving Vaccine Supply Chain at the Pan American Health Organization
Organization: Pan American Health Organization (PAHO)
Project Topic: Bundling of Vaccines for South America
Project Description:
The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) is the regional office for the Americas of the World Health Organization. It procures vaccines for 37 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. Each year, based on forecasted demand, PAHO requests bids from vaccines suppliers. The allocations to each supplier are determined manually, considering vaccines costs, estimated transportation costs, supplier’s performance, and special country requests. In order to improve this bidding and allocation process, recommendations for demand forecasting and transportation costs estimation were done. Also, a model for bid award allocation was developed to explore bundle bidding in which suppliers can submit bids for groups of vaccines rather than only individual vaccines. The results of the project provided valuable insight into supply chain improvements for PAHO’s vaccine procurement process
Further Information:
Improving PAHO's Vaccine Supply Chain paper
Improving PAHO's Vaccine Supply Chain poster
Contact the Center for Humanitarian Logistics by email: humlog@isye.gatech.edu
When Disaster Strikes: Lessons from Logistics at The Home Depot
Organization: The Home Depot
Project Topic: Private Industry Humanitarian Response to Disasters
Project Description:
Home Depot is the world’s largest home improvement retailer with a strong home repair retail presence nationwide through its 2,100 retail stores. The Home Depot is committed to be a strong first responder serving demand before, during, and after disasters, especially hurricanes. To achieve this, it effectively coordinates its different functional areas such as Asset Protection, Merchandising, Logistics and Regional Management. Establishing hurricane distribution centers, forecasting inventory for a hurricane season, preposition by canned loads, sending in repair teams and opening stores right after the storm, are a few examples of the activities that Home Depot does to enable a fast response after a hurricane.
Further Information:
Lessons from Logistics at Home Depot and Waffle House When a Disaster Strikes
Home Depot Weather Center WebPage
Contact the Center for Humanitarian Logistics by email: humlog@isye.gatech.edu
When Disaster Strikes: Lessons from Logistics at Waffle House
Organization: Waffle House
Project Topic: Private Industry Humanitarian Response to Disasters
Project Description:
Waffle House has more than 1500 stores in 25 states and has been an early responder after hurricanes for the past decade, serving both victims and early responders. An important aspect of an adequate response is how the best decisions can be made when resources are limited. For example, Waffle House has a special hurricane menu that balances food safety, timing of food preparation, and space needed for food storage and preparation. Its disaster response activities include pre-season purchase or lease agreements for recovery necessities (like generators, portable toilets, etc.), ordering required food items for the transition period, and prioritizing stores for re-opening.
Further Information:
Lessons from Logistics at Home Depot and Waffle House When a Disaster Strikes
Contact the Center for Humanitarian Logistics by email: humlog@isye.gatech.edu
