A Proposal for a Relief Supply Matching System

摘要

Following a large scale disaster, a lot of people and organizations are spontaneously motivated to provide relief supplies to disaster survivors. This process is fraught with challenges due to the lack of an efficient matching mechanism between the survivors' needs and the supplies provided. In this study, we propose a matching system that streamlines the relief supplies logistics. The proposed system uses three types of information (the needs of the disaster survivors, available supplies from the supporters, and inventories at the collection facilities) and output plans for allocating, delivering, and storing supplies. Four matching methods (the demand fulfillment maximization method, time priority method, apportionment method, and multi-purpose optimization method) are defined and each of these is formulated as a mathematical programming problem. The effectiveness and characteristics of the matching system are demonstrated through case studies.