Speaker: Onur Kaya, Eskisehir Technical University
Date & Time: February 24, 2023, Friday 13:30
Title: Inventory Decisions for Humanitarian Aid Materials under Limited Budget in a Stochastic Environment
This is an online event. To obtain event details please send a mesaage to department.
Abstract: Humanitarian aid organizations generally need to decide how to allocate their limited budget among different materials and how much of their budget to use for each type of material for disaster preparedness and disaster response. The budget can either be used before the disaster for stocking decisions under uncertainty or it can be used after the disaster to satisfy the required demand at a higher cost when the uncertainty is resolved. In this seminar, we will first consider the single period problem and develop single and two-product models with and without budget constraints. After presenting their optimal solutions, we extend our analysis for multi-product case and propose approximation algorithms utilizing the optimal solutions derived for the single and two-product cases. Later on, we will also talk about the dynamic setting for the single product case with and without budget constraints, considering an infinite-horizon problem. We compare the results of our different models and provide managerial insights through detailed numerical results. It is observed that, contrary to expectations, higher quantities are purchased before the disaster when there is a limited budget, as compared to the unlimited budget case. When multiple products are considered, it is important to consider the interactions between the products, especially when the budget is at moderate levels.
Bio: Onur Kaya is a professor at Eskisehir Technical University, Department of Industrial Engineering and is currently serving as the Vice Rector, and Dean Of Engineering Faculty at Eskisehir Technical University. He graduated from METU Industrial Engineering Department in 2002, and holds M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Industrial Engineering and Operations Research (IEOR) and an M.A. degree in Statistics from University of California, Berkeley. Dr. Kaya previously worked at Koc University, Industrial Engineering Department between 2007 and 2014 before joining Eskisehir Technical University. Dr. Kaya’s research interests mostly include stochastic modeling of sustainable supply chain systems, inventory control and revenue management. Lately, he has also been working in the area of healthcare and disaster management. Dr. Kaya is the recipient of the 2018 BAGEP and 2020 METU Parlar Foundation awards, and is currently a member of the TÜBİTAK MAG Executive Board. He has worked as the principal investigator in several academic and industry related projects and published several articles in various respected academic journals.