The optimal assignment of spontaneous volunteers

Spontaneous volunteers are ordinary citizens who assist in disaster relief efforts, while they are a great resource they also pose a difficult logistical challenge. Unlike classical labor assignment problems, the management of these volunteers is characterized by uncertainty regarding the size, avai...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Journal of the Operational Research Society 2017-09, Vol.68 (9), p.1106-1116
Main Authors: Mayorga, Maria E., Lodree, Emmett J., Wolczynski, Justin
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Abandonment
Business and Management
Clearing
disaster operations management
Disaster relief
Labor
Management
Markov analysis
Markov chains
Markov decision process
Operations Research/Decision Theory
Parameter sensitivity
Queues
Queuing theory
Sensitivity analysis
volunteer assignment
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Summary:Spontaneous volunteers are ordinary citizens who assist in disaster relief efforts, while they are a great resource they also pose a difficult logistical challenge. Unlike classical labor assignment problems, the management of these volunteers is characterized by uncertainty regarding the size, availability, and commitment of the labor pool. We model this problem as a multi-server queueing system with both stochastic server arrival and abandonment. This model is intended to be applied to the relatively stable work associated with recovery efforts, e.g., debris clearing. We model this system as a continuous time Markov decision process and compare the optimal policy to several common-sense heuristics; one of which performs close to optimal and makes a practical alternative. We conduct extensive sensitivity analysis around model parameters and assumptions.
ISSN:0160-5682
1476-9360
DOI:10.1057/s41274-017-0219-2