Tradeoffs among Attributes of Resources in Humanitarian Operations: Evidence from United States Navy
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Authors
Apte, Aruna
Bacolod, Marigee
Carmichael, Ryan
Subjects
humanitarian logistics
factor analysis
United States Navy
factor analysis
United States Navy
Advisors
Date of Issue
2020-04
Date
2020-04
Publisher
POMS
Language
en_US
Abstract
This study offers a utility framework to identify assets for deployment into humanitarian assistance and disaster relief (HADR) operations. We focus on attributes of the hard assets: capabilities for humanitarian missions, proximity to the affected area, and cost to the organization. We demonstrate the importance of this framework using the case of the United States Navy (USN). On a broader level, we offer a strategy for the decision makers to deploy appropriate assets for executing HADR smartly. Such a method, when employed with relevant data, can enhance efficiency for various orga- nizations involved in HADR, whether military or not. We collected a large amount of data on the assets, specifically ships, of the USN. This collected data alone are a contribution to the literature. We use factor analysis to reduce the dimension- ality and make the dataset manageable while simultaneously retaining the variation and maximal information in the data. Our results, in this case, show that planners need to consider costs to truly maximize utility, especially in cases where two assets, or a combination of them, have similar utility ratings but significantly different costs. Our findings also demonstrate that asset capabilities, proximity, and the duration of an HADR response matter. Finally, we employ our framework to illustrate how HADR responses to the 2010 Haiti and 2011 Tohoku earthquakes could have been conducted more effectively and efficiently.
Type
Article
Description
The article of record as published may be found at https://doi.org/10.1111/poms.13154
Series/Report No
Department
Graduate School of Defense Management (GSDM)
Organization
Naval Postgraduate School
Identifiers
NPS Report Number
Sponsors
Funder
Identified in text as U.S. Government work.
Format
20 p.
Citation
Apte, Aruna, Marigee Bacolod, and Ryan Carmichael. "Tradeoffs among Attributes of Resources in Humanitarian Operations: Evidence from United States Navy." Production and Operations Management 29.4 (2020): 1071-1090.
Distribution Statement
Rights
This publication is a work of the U.S. Government as defined in Title 17, United States Code, Section 101. Copyright protection is not available for this work in the United States.