Jason Acimovic, Jarrod Goentzel
Partners: UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN OCHA), UN Humanitarian Response Depots (UNHRD), US Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)
Many organizations stockpile inventory in strategic locations in order to respond quickly and cheaply to disasters. This project developed models and metrics that the humanitarian logistics community can utilize to coordinate preparedness efforts. The approach and initial analysis are described in a Journal of Operations Management article.
The authors continue to monitor the quality of stockpiles stores in the United Nations Humanitarian Response Depots (UNHRDs) daily: Summary Dashboard and Depot Dashboard. These results are intended to be illustrative, and are subject to the assumptions and approximations outlined in the article. They are not intended to judge whether the UN or organizations using its UNHRDs are placing inventory optimally.
This approach was adopted by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN OCHA) for data analysis supporting the Emergency Supply Pre-positioning Strategies (ESUPS) Working Group. For more information about that initiative, click the link to the positioning document.
The model was also used by lab alumna Lauren Seelbach, who joined FEMA following graduation, to support a warehouse location decision. We are continuing the resesarch to better refine metrics for disaster response in the 48 contiguous United States and to more directly incorporate private sector capacity.