Lecture 1
Disaster = a disruption that physically affects a system as a whole and
threatens its priorities and goals
-> can be natural or man-made, and slow or sudden-onset
Natural Man-made
Sudden Earthquake Terrorism
Hurricane Coupe d’etat
Tornado Chemical leak
Slow Famine Political crisis
Drought Refugee crisis
Poverty
Mandate = stated set of policies and procedures agreed on and carried out by
an organization to define and pursue its purpose given the organization’s own
standards and norms
Two types of operations:
1. Relief -> emergency response usually to sudden-onset disasters
2. Development programs -> long term projects to increase quality of living
Multi-Lateral organizations -> governed by representatives of governments
-> unlike non-governmental organizations (NGOs)
* INGO -> Large, International NGO
* LNGO -> Small, Local NGO
Challenges in humanitarian logistics:
▪ Need for robust equipment
▪ Limited resources
▪ Bad environmental/logistic conditions
▪ Need to be extremely adaptable and prepared for the unexpected
▪ Safety issues
▪ High levels of uncertainty
▪ Time pressure
▪ High staff turnover
▪ Many actors
▪ Politicized environment
▪ Incentive misalignment
▪ Ambiguous objectives
▪ The human factor: people not goods
Components of Humanitarian Logistics
Supply Chain Non-Supply Chain
Logistics and supply chain staff Program staff
Procurement Training and workshops
Transportation Management and admin
Warehousing Legal and license fees
Other supply chain expenses Donor relationship management
Lecture 2
, Food basket = set of food items provided to individuals or families in need
-> aims to meet daily nutritional needs
Fortified foods = foods with added vitamin and minerals to address nutritional
deficiencies
Three key challenges in designing food baskets:
1. Logistics
2. Nutritional adequacy
3. Balancing costs and preferences
Three building blocks of mathematical modelling:
1. What is it you want to achieve? (OBJECTIVE)
2. What can/needs to be decided? (DECISION VARIABLES)
3. What is it that restricts you? (CONSTRAINTS)
Example of optimizing with constraints:
Your company produces Lego, you can create tables or chairs.
Tables require 2 big bricks, 2 small bricks, and grant a profit of $20
Chairs require 1 big brick, 2 small bricks, and grant a profit of $15
You have 8 small bricks and 6 big bricks available.
Mathematical modelling:
Step 1: introduce decision variables
- Xchair : number of chairs produced
- Xtable : number of tables produced
Step 2: determine the constraints
- 1xchair + 2xtable ≤ 6 (only 6 big bricks)
- 2xchair + 2xtable ≤ 8 (only 8 small bricks)
- xchair ≥ 0, xtable ≥ 0 (produce non-negative quantities)
Step 3: determine the objective function
Total profit = 15xchair + 20xtable
-> this is called a linear program
* Use excel for the ‘simple problems’ and CPLEX/Gurobi for the ‘difficult problems’
Lecture 3
Challenges in:
Disaster = a disruption that physically affects a system as a whole and
threatens its priorities and goals
-> can be natural or man-made, and slow or sudden-onset
Natural Man-made
Sudden Earthquake Terrorism
Hurricane Coupe d’etat
Tornado Chemical leak
Slow Famine Political crisis
Drought Refugee crisis
Poverty
Mandate = stated set of policies and procedures agreed on and carried out by
an organization to define and pursue its purpose given the organization’s own
standards and norms
Two types of operations:
1. Relief -> emergency response usually to sudden-onset disasters
2. Development programs -> long term projects to increase quality of living
Multi-Lateral organizations -> governed by representatives of governments
-> unlike non-governmental organizations (NGOs)
* INGO -> Large, International NGO
* LNGO -> Small, Local NGO
Challenges in humanitarian logistics:
▪ Need for robust equipment
▪ Limited resources
▪ Bad environmental/logistic conditions
▪ Need to be extremely adaptable and prepared for the unexpected
▪ Safety issues
▪ High levels of uncertainty
▪ Time pressure
▪ High staff turnover
▪ Many actors
▪ Politicized environment
▪ Incentive misalignment
▪ Ambiguous objectives
▪ The human factor: people not goods
Components of Humanitarian Logistics
Supply Chain Non-Supply Chain
Logistics and supply chain staff Program staff
Procurement Training and workshops
Transportation Management and admin
Warehousing Legal and license fees
Other supply chain expenses Donor relationship management
Lecture 2
, Food basket = set of food items provided to individuals or families in need
-> aims to meet daily nutritional needs
Fortified foods = foods with added vitamin and minerals to address nutritional
deficiencies
Three key challenges in designing food baskets:
1. Logistics
2. Nutritional adequacy
3. Balancing costs and preferences
Three building blocks of mathematical modelling:
1. What is it you want to achieve? (OBJECTIVE)
2. What can/needs to be decided? (DECISION VARIABLES)
3. What is it that restricts you? (CONSTRAINTS)
Example of optimizing with constraints:
Your company produces Lego, you can create tables or chairs.
Tables require 2 big bricks, 2 small bricks, and grant a profit of $20
Chairs require 1 big brick, 2 small bricks, and grant a profit of $15
You have 8 small bricks and 6 big bricks available.
Mathematical modelling:
Step 1: introduce decision variables
- Xchair : number of chairs produced
- Xtable : number of tables produced
Step 2: determine the constraints
- 1xchair + 2xtable ≤ 6 (only 6 big bricks)
- 2xchair + 2xtable ≤ 8 (only 8 small bricks)
- xchair ≥ 0, xtable ≥ 0 (produce non-negative quantities)
Step 3: determine the objective function
Total profit = 15xchair + 20xtable
-> this is called a linear program
* Use excel for the ‘simple problems’ and CPLEX/Gurobi for the ‘difficult problems’
Lecture 3
Challenges in:
