Local Resources and Procurement Practices in Humanitarian Supply Chains: An Empirical Examination of Large‐Scale House Reconstruction Projects

Different procurement decisions taken by relief organizations can result in considerably different implications in regards to transport, storage, and distribution of humanitarian aid and ultimately can influence the performance of the humanitarian supply chain and the delivery of the humanitarian aid. In this article, we look into what resources are needed and how these resources evolve in the delivery of humanitarian aid. Drawing on the resource‐based view of the firm, we develop a framework to categorize the impact of local resources on the configuration of humanitarian supply chains. In contrast to other papers, the importance of localizing the configuration of the humanitarian supply chain is not only conceptually recognized, but empirical investigations are also provided. In terms of methodology, this article is based on the analysis of secondary data from two housing reconstruction projects. Findings indicate that the use of local resources in humanitarian aid has positive effects on programs’ overall supply chain performance and these effects are not only related to the macroeconomic perspective, but benefits expand to improvements related to the use of knowledge. At the same time, it was found that local sourcing often comes with a number of problems. For example, in one of the cases, significant problems existed, which were related to the scarcity of local supplies. Both housing reconstruction projects have indicated the continuous need for changes throughout the programs as a dynamic supply chain configuration is important for the long‐term sustainability of reconstruction aid.     

Measuring and Achieving Equity in Multiperiod Emergency Material Allocation

Emergency material allocation is an important part of postdisaster emergency logistics that is significant for improving rescue effectiveness and reducing disaster losses. However, the traditional single‐period allocation model often causes local surpluses or shortages and high cost, and prevents the system from achieving an equitable or optimal multiperiod allocation. To achieve equitable allocation of emergency materials in the case of serious shortages relative to the demand by victims, this article introduces a multiperiod model for allocation of emergency materials to multiple affected locations (using an exponential utility function to reflect the disutility loss due to material shortfalls), and illustrates the relationship between equity of allocations and the cost of emergency response. Finally, numerical examples are presented to demonstrate both the feasibility and the usefulness of the proposed model for achieving multiperiod equitable allocation of emergency material among multiple disaster locations. The results indicate that the introduction of a nonlinear utility function to reflect the disutility of large shortfalls can make the material allocation fairer, and minimize large losses due to shortfalls. We found that achieving equity has a significant but not unreasonable impact on emergency costs. We also illustrate that using differing utility functions for different types of materials adds an important dimension of flexibility.     

SUBJECTIVE EVALUATIONS FOR PRODUCT DESIGN DECISIONS

This paper presents a simple methodology to enable a firm to incorporate consumers' subjective evaluations early into the concept screening stage of a new product introduction process. The methodology involves eliciting ranked preference judgments toward a set of alternative product concepts, each described as a profile of attributes and derived from an interval-scaled utility score using Thurstone's comparative judgment model. The derived utility scores are then decomposed into simple effects attributable to each of the attributes, thus yielding functional representations of consumer preferences. Mathematical models are developed to utilize the functions to determine the best concept. Empirical illustrations are provided for application of the methodology.     

IT服务外包项目工期与费用控制的 多属性英氏逆拍卖机制

工期和费用是影响IT服务外包项目成败的两个重要因素,且两者之间呈负相关的关系。在IT服务外包项目执行前,发包方与接包方需要就项目的工期和费用达成一致。通常,发包方并不完全了解外包项目的市场行情,在这种情况下,就需要一种有效的方式使发包方和接包方之间就工期和费用达成一致。本文设计了改进的英氏逆拍卖机制,针对一对多的情况设计了新的拍卖协议;针对工期和费用的多属性情况,引入多属性效用理论解决,设计了相应的效用增加函数。最后通过一个算例来演示所设计的拍卖机制对解决此类决策问题的作用。得出一些结论:所设计机制能够以拍卖方式描述费用和工期管理流程;找到了发包方和接包方的最佳增量效用,并且建议的拍卖协议是发包方和接包方获得双赢结果的机制;从不同大小的案例中可以得到完全一致的结果,这表明设计的拍卖机制的有效性和效用增加函数对协商结果的有效性。     

Disasters and dilemmas: aid agency recruitment and HRD in post-tsunami Sri Lanka 1

Abstract

This article examines the ethical dimensions and implications of recruitment and human resource development that face both local and international aid agencies operating in the context of an emergency response. Focusing on post-tsunami Sri Lanka it contends that, although the rapid proliferation of humanitarian organizations responding to the disaster created a boom in employment opportunities with international agencies, it also resulted in a human resource crisis for local ones and consequently the erosion of national emergency response capacities. It argues that the current recruitment and HRD practices of humanitarian organizations are insensitive to the disaster response needs of local agencies. It concludes with a call for international aid agencies to be more aware of the implications of their recruitment and HRD strategies in disaster-affected countries and recommends a number of ways in which practices could be improved to support, rather than diminish, local capacities.     

基于云服务的考虑预期调配的应急物资储备策略

储备应急物资是应对突发灾害的有效手段之一。为了满足以人为本、维护稳定和统筹协调的物资储备原则，在储备不足情况下，利用云服务模式统一调配物资。根据应急系统内各储备点的人口覆盖比例和物资预期需求量，以物资储备的公平效用和预期调配成本为目标，构建基于云服务的考虑预期调配的应急物资储备模型，并设计改进的非支配排序遗传算法（NSGA-II）对模型求解。应用该模型对我国应急物资储备系统进行优化配置，确定不同偏好下各储备点的物资配置量。对物资储备总量进行了灵敏度分析，结果表明：物资的购置成本和单位重量是储备总量影响总支出和预期调配成本的决定因素；储备总量的增加会降低预期调配成本，且当购置成本的增加量小于预期调配成本的减少量时，总支出会随着储备总量的增加而减少，直到减少的总支出达到最大值时，得到储备总量的最优值。     

震后初期应急物资配送的模糊多目标选址-多式联运问题

针对震后初期应急物资配送系统优化问题,考虑应急物资需求模糊情况下应急物资配送中心选址和应急物资多式联运安排的集成决策,以应急物资配送总时间最短和受灾点应急物资未满足的总损失最小为目标,建立了一个震后应急物资配送的多目标选址-多式联运问题优化模型,设计了一种采用二维编码的非支配排序多目标遗传算法,并对该算法进行了复杂性分析。算例分析结果表明:该算法可以在得到Pareto前沿的同时,根据决策者偏好在Pareto前沿面上给出各种优化决策方案。     

Selecting a Portfolio of Technologies: An Application of Decision Analysis

The Department of Energy is faced with the critical and complex decision of selecting technologies for waste site remediation. This research focuses on developing a decision support tool which assists the decision maker to find an optimal portfolio. A portfolio consists of selecting the appropriate processes for a remediation site and, subsequently, selecting a technology for each process so that the decision maker's objectives are achieved. The measures supporting the objectives are risk, life-cycle cost, and time required for remediation. The model uses exponential attribute utility functions with an additive objective function. The model provides the decision maker with estimates of the cost and time distributions, and their associated utility. Cumulative frequency distributions illustrate the dominance of technology choices and the variance in the results. The model permits sensitivity analysis in the form of rainbow and tornado diagrams to display the effects of changes in the values of the input variables. Overall, the model provides a generic technology selection tool that can be used to make better informed decisions and may be easily manipulated to reflect changes in the remediation process.     

Estimation of Deprivation Level Functions using a Numerical Rating Scale

Evaluating and quantifying human suffering in humanitarian operations offers an innovative and potentially powerful way to assess the performance of humanitarian logistics (HL) and help build optimization models. Previous studies have suggested deprivation cost as a metric and have estimated deprivation cost functions for water using willingness‐to‐pay. Our study proposes deprivation levels, defined as the degree of human suffering caused by lack of access to a good or service, and estimates deprivation level functions using a numerical rating scale. Analyzing data collected from respondents with and without disaster experience, we find that individuals in the latter category estimate deprivation differently from the beneficiaries of disaster relief. Our study demonstrates that deprivation levels can be expressed as logistic growth functions with a typical S‐shape, and that these can be integrated into HL optimization models to better account for human suffering.     

ASSESSMENT OF MULTIATTRIBUTED MEASURABLE VALUE AND UTILITY FUNCTIONS VIA MATHEMATICAL PROGRAMMING*

A major restriction on the use of decision analysis in practice is the frequent difficulty of determining a decision maker's multiattribute utility function. The assessment process can be complex and tedious and generally involves: (1) identifying relevant independence conditions, (2) assessing conditional utility functions, (3) assessing scaling constants, and (4) checking for consistency. Some of the assessment and modeling complexities encountered include an assessor's inability to respond in a quantitatively meaningful and consistent way to hypothetical gambles and an analyst's problem in selecting an appropriate functional form that accurately characterizes the conditional utility assessments. A simplified procedure that mitigates these difficulties is proposed. This procedure facilitates the determination of scaling constants by obtaining (via mathematical programming) a multiattributed measurable value function which is converted to a multiattributed utility function. The methodology can be developed advantageously to produce an interactive software package for use as an assessment aid.     

Scheduling Truck Arrivals at an Air Cargo Terminal

We consider the scheduling of truck arrivals at an air cargo terminal. By coordinating arrivals of cargo delivery trucks with outbound flight departure schedules, some of the shipments can be transferred directly to the departing flights, while others will be stored at the terminal's storage facility and incur extra handling and storage costs. The objective is to obtain a feasible schedule so as to minimize the total cost of operations. We formulate the problem as a time‐indexed integer program and show that, even with limited number of unloading docks at the terminal, the problem is non‐trivial (NP‐hard in the strong sense). Our solution method includes an exact solution procedure to determine an optimal unloading sequence for the shipments carried by each truck, together with a Lagrangian relaxation‐based heuristic for assigning trucks to truck docks and determining truck arrival times. We conducted computational experiments to test the performance of our solution method. Computational results show that our method can generate near‐optimal solutions efficiently. Our simulation results indicate that the scheduling approach proposed in this paper has the potential to generate significant cost savings over a first‐come, first‐served approach currently used at the air cargo terminal that we observed.     

Coordinated scheduling of production and delivery stages with stage-dependent inventory holding costs

This paper considers a problem of integrated decision-making for job scheduling and delivery batching wherein different inventory holding costs between production and delivery stages are allowed. In the problem, jobs are processed on a facility at a production stage and then delivered at the subsequent delivery stage by a capacitated vehicle. The objective is to find the coordinated schedule of production and delivery that minimizes the total cost of the associated WIP inventory, finished product inventory and delivery, where both the inventory costs are characterized in terms of the weighted flow-time and the delivery cost is proportional to the required number of delivery batches. It is proved that the problem is NP-hard in the strong sense. Thereupon, three heuristic algorithms are derived. Some restricted cases are also characterized as being solvable in polynomial time. Numerical experiments are conducted to evaluate the performance of the derived heuristic algorithms.     

多受灾点应急物资动态多阶段分配模型研究

针对传统的单阶段物资分配模型可能导致应急物资分配的局部冗余或短缺、高成本、系统无法达到全局最优等现实情况,通过在指数效用函数中引入灾民物资需求的比例短缺测度公平,以物资短缺的延迟损失最小化与物资分配的总成本最小化为目标构建考虑多集散点、多配送中心和多受灾点的三级配送网络的应急物资动态多阶段分配模型,设计了目标转化与线性近似相结合的模型求解方法,并通过算例对所提出模型的有效性和可行性进行了验证。结果表明：所提出的多阶段模型能够兼顾物资分配的效率与公平,最大程度地降低物资短缺的延迟损失以及物资分配的总成本;运用灾民物资需求的比例短缺量化公平,避免了由于各受灾点的需求量差异而对公平分配产生的影响,可以使各受灾点即使在应急救援初期物资有限、中期物资持续供不应求等情况下,仍然能够在每阶段获得一定比率的所需物资,进而避免较大的物资短缺损失,确保多受灾点之间多阶段应急物资分配的公平性,更符合灾害救援实际,可为现实大规模灾害应急救援物资多阶段分配提供决策支持。     

有可再生能源和电力存储设施并网的智能电网优化用电策略

大量可再生能源和存储设施集中或分布接入电网,缓解了电网的供给压力,但同时也对电力系统安全造成新的威胁。合理使用新能源和可存储设施使之更好为电网服务,是现代电网亟待解决的一个问题。本文对有可存储设备和可再生能源并网的电力系统进行研究,根据可再生能源在实际生活中的情形,将其划分为两类：私人新能源发电和公共新能源发电,其中私人新能源发电可供自身直接使用,多余部分并入电网,而公共新能源发电直接并入电网,然后针对上述复杂情形,结合用户实际需求,以所有用户效用最大化、成本最小化为目标函数,建立优化模型,给出了一种既有可存储设备又有可再生能源复杂并网情况下用户优化用电策略——包括家用电器、新能源、以及存储设备充放电策略。对模型的性质进行研究,考虑到模型是凸规划,强对偶成立,用拉格朗日对偶算法给出了模型的解。求解过程中,由于目标函数是非光滑的,采用光滑化的技术将目标函数光滑化,将非光滑问题转化为光滑问题,进一步利用拟牛顿下降法求解。该策略能确保新能源得到优先、充分利用,体现用户效用最大化、成本最小化,同时可以避免由于新能源并网可能会造成电网不稳定情况的出现;光滑化的方法不但适用于本文,经过适当改进后也可适用于其他目标函数为非光滑的情况。仿真结果验证了模型的合理性和算法的可行性。     

EXPERIMENTAL DETERMINATION OF COMMUNITY PREFERENCES FOR WATER QUALITY—COST ALTERNATIVES*

This paper describes the theoretical background, methodology, and results of a small water-pollution study conducted in a suburban Canadian community. In the study, preferences of heads of households were determined for different levels of environmental water quality and cost to the household of achieving this quality. Inferences are drawn from the preference data about the underlying individual utility functions. Implications of the study methodology and results for social decision making are discussed.     

考虑异质性行为的灾后应急物资动态调度优化

在以人道主义为本的应急救援活动中，不可忽视被救灾民和施救决策者们异质性行为的影响。一方面，将各灾民因救援物资需求未被及时满足而呈现的差异化心理痛苦度量成经济损失，并纳入应急救援调度的社会成本这一决策目标中；另一方面，在灾后物资调度决策中，关注具有异质性偏好的各应急决策者所展现出的不同救援态度。结合面向联合机会约束规划的动态供需平衡限制，最终构建一个考虑灾民和决策者们异质性行为的多阶段灾后救援物资分配和应急路径优化模型。采用2008年汶川地震为案例背景，应用遗传算法对模型求解和参数分析，将仿真结果与不考虑异质性行为的传统救援调度方案进行比较，得出一些结论为构建高效的应急救援体系提供有益参考。     

On vendor part delivery dates in a stochastic assembly system

This paper describes the development of a model for the determination of optimal mean part delivery dates in a stochastic assembly system for the objective of minimizing the expected cost of subassembly and part inventory. Parts are assembled at each station to a subassembly. The part delivery and processing times at assembly stations follow known probability distributions. An approximate solution technique based on the optimization of individual stations in isolation is developed. The approximation applies a correction factor, as a function of the variability in part delivery and processing time, cost parameters and number of stations, to the decisions from the single station solutions to compensate for interdependence between stations. Results indicate that this is an effective approach and yields good near-optimal solutions with very little computational effort. Insights regarding the effect of the type of distribution used, random processing times, variance of the distribution used and cost parameter values on part delivery dates are also reported.     

Preference-Order Recursion for Finding Relevant Pure,Admissible and Optimal Statistical Decision Functions*

A preference-order recursion algorithm for obtaining a relevant subset of pure, admissible (non-dominated, efficient) decision functions which converges towards an optimal solution in statistical decision problems is proposed. The procedure permits a decision maker to interactively express strong binary preferences for partial decision functions at each stage of the recursion, from which an imprecise probability and/or utility function is imputed and used as one of several pruning mechanisms to obtain a reduced relevant subset of admissible decision functions or to converge on an optimal one. The computational and measurement burden is thereby mitigated significantly, for example, by not requiring explicit or full probability and utility information from the decision maker. The algorithm is applicable to both linear and nonlinear utility functions. The results of behavioral and computational experimentation show that the approach is viable, efficient, and robust.     

引入流动性一定降低期末财富效用吗?——基于理论视角的探讨

考察在单期投资下,以投资者期末变现后财富效用最大化为目标,将流动性作为变现成本引入效用函数模型中将投资管理的视角从二维空间拓展至三维空间.研究结果表明:①期末期望财富效用是非流动性及非流动性方差的减函数;②考虑流动性并不一定降低投资者的期末期望财富效用.