Hedonistic Sustainability and Supply Chains -- Enjoying Our Environment and Our World

I often write about sustainability on this blog and also about supply chains.

I care about our world and our environment and that is one reason I am spending a lot of time in Sweden as a Visiting Professor of Operations Management, as part of my sabbatical from the Isenberg School of Management at UMass Amherst. The Scandinavians are very advanced in terms of not only social welfare but also sustainability.

This past Friday, my colleague, Professor Jonas Floden, who is one of my hosts at the School of Business, Economics and Law at the University of Gothenburg, and I were visited by a freelance journalist from San Francisco, who had heard me speak on Transport and Traffic at The New York Times EnergyForTomorrow Building Sustainable Cities event this past April.

Our conversation, accompanied by delicious coffee in our office suite, began with congestion charging in Gothenburg, implemented this past January, with contrasts to the Stockholm congestion charging system, which was implemented back in 2006. We also talked about the upcoming referendum, which is an interesting twist, and is due, in part, to the efforts of a local newspaper GT to try to overturn the tolls and they are working with car ridership down and transit use up!!!

In our discussions, we were also told about the waste to energy project of the leader of hedonistic sustainability, the Danish architectural genius Bjarke Ingels, who likes to think BIG,  and which will come with a ski slope! The project is now under construction in flat Copenhagen.

You can enjoy the wisdom and charisma of this visionary architect speaking at TED on YouTube.

Sustainability does not have to be all just about sacrifice. It is a design challenge and I could not agree more. Our work on design of sustainable supply chains,  Sustainable Supply Chain Network Design: A Multicriteria Perspective, Anna Nagurney and Ladimer S. Nagurney, International Journal of Sustainable Engineering 3: (2010) pp 189-197 and even sustainable supply chains for sustainable cities, Design of Sustainable Supply Chains for Sustainable Cities, Anna Nagurney, Invited Paper for the Complex-City Workshop, December 5-6, 2011, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, to appear in Environment & Planning B, is motivated by preserving the beauty of our world -- from the air that we breathe to the natural environment to the food that we eat and even to the clothes that we wear.

Note that consumers in Sweden favor the fish (and fishermen) that they know with information provided on the point of origin and date and I have been captivated by fish supply chains and even the use of RFID technology to track the fish.

And, how can you not enjoy the beauty and taste of the treats below, which I captured in one of my favorite cafes in Gothenburg:

Kudos also to H&M, the fast fashion house, which, I might add, was doing great sales yesterday, as evidenced by the lines in its stores in Gothenburg, for instituting its Rewear-Reuse-Recycle-ConversiontoEnergy initiative. And, according to H&M's website:

Does H&M profit from the returned garments?

No. Our revenues will be used to reward our customers, to make donations to local charity organisations and to invest in recycling innovation. For each kilogram of clothes we collect, 0.02 EUR* will be donated to a local charity organisation chosen by H&M.

I found out about H&M's Garment Collecting Initiative, after we had made purchases at H&M and I liked the bag above, which we will continue to use and reuse. Fast fashion is another passion of mine and we co-authored the paper, Sustainable Fashion Supply Chain Management Under Oligopolistic Competition and Brand Differentiation, Anna Nagurney and Min Yu, International Journal of Production Economics, Special Section on Green Manufacturing and Distribution in the Fashion and Apparel Industries 135: (2012) pp 532-540.

Whether it is the food that we eat, the medicines that we consume, or the clothes that we wear, the buildings that we live and work in, the parks and transportation systems that we enjoy, sustainability, at its best, is hedonistic. Interestingly, last Saturday, while by the Central Station and Radisson in Gothenburg, I was intrigued by the number of police and police cars (unusual in this very safe city). In asking locals what was up I was told -- a local soccer team was in town and then a Chinese princess is visiting. The truth was that a Chinese delegation had arrived and was staying at the Radisson.  According to this report, the Chinese realize west Sweden's competence in energy and eco-friendliness and have come to learn.

 I leave you with photos of the views from the top of the School of Business, Economics and Law, which has won many awards for its architecture. Note the photos of the new bus lane. I'll save the photos of the hills through the woods that I climb to get to my apartment for another post.

Fixing the Broken Humanitarian Healthcare Supply Chains

Despite significant advances in supply chain management in terms of both methodology and application, healthcare supply chains, and, in particular, humanitarian healthcare supply chains, have not received the needed attention.

Humanitarian healthcare supply chains have many unique characteristics. For example, as pointed out in the handbook, Humanitarian Supply Management and Logistics in the Health Sector, by the Pan American Health Organization and World Health Organization (2001), “The various stages in the flow of supplies from their point of origin to the moment they reach their recipients – whether they be the organizations managing the emergency or the actual beneficiaries of the assistance – are a chain made up of very close links. How any one of these links is managed invariably affects the others. Supply management must therefore be the focus of an integral approach that looks at all the links in the sequence and never loses sight of their interdependence ...”

Hence, an appropriate framework for humanitarian healthcare supply chains must capture the entire relevant network.

Moreover, Van Wassenhove and Pedraza Martinez, writing in an article in a special issue of International Transactions in Operational Research, that I have blogged about, have argued that “The key for logistics restructuring is better network design” and noted that logistics restructuring is a supply chain management best practice that could be used in humanitarian logistics restructuring, singling out the restructuring of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC).

The news as to how to optimally design and redesign multiproduct humanitarian healthcare supply chains needs to get out more widely since, in 2011, more than 251 drug shortages were reported, including 20 chemotherapy agents, according to the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists. The drug shortage crisis has not only forced patients to switch to more expensive alternatives, but also posed potential hazards of medical errors. Although the causes of drug shortages are complicated, it has been noted that production disruption at one manufacturing facility can lead to widespread drug shortages.

In the paper, "Multiproduct Humanitarian Healthcare Supply Chains: A Network Modeling and Computational Framework," that I co-authored with my doctoral student, Min Yu of the Isenberg School of Management, and with Professor Patrick Qiang of Penn State Malvern, we developed a multiproduct supply chain network design and redesign model with applications to humanitarian healthcare applications. The variables in the model are supply chain network link capacities as well as the healthcare product flows associated with the supply chain activities of production, transportation/shipment, and storage/distribution.

When the capacities are sufficient to meet the demands and no enhancement of capacity is needed, the model collapses to a humanitarian healthcare operations optimization model.

The solution of the model yields the optimal investment capacities and product flows on the links at minimal total cost, with the demand for the various products being satisfied at the various demand points. With this information, a firm or organization involved in the production and distribution of healthcare products can identify the total cost associated with the provision of its products. The framework can handle both the design and the redesign problem with the latter being especially relevant for healthcare, since, for example, vaccine manufacturers may have to regear from year to year depending on the forecasted flu viruses; the same holds for the manufacture of associated medicines.

Given the paucity of multiproduct supply chain network mathematical models and associated methodologies in the literature that can handle both link capacities and product flows as decision variables, along with nonlinear cost functions to capture congestion, as well as risk, we believe that, with this paper, we have made a contribution of specific relevance to humanitarian healthcare supply chains.

We will be presenting the paper at the 2012 POMS Conference that will take place in Chicago, Illinois, April 20-23. The paper has been accepted for publication in the conference Proceedings.

Healthcare Supply Chain Talks at POMS in Reno, Nevada

Yesterday, two of my doctoral students practiced the presentations that they will be giving this Friday at the POMS Conference, which is taking place in Reno, Nevada, April 29-May 2, 2011. They did such a great job that I treated them and the other students who served as the audience out to lunch.

The theme of this year's conference is -- Operations Management -- The Enabling Link.

They will be speaking in a healthcare session. Amir Masoumi will present our paper, "Supply Chain Network Operations Management of a Blood Banking System with Cost and Risk Management," and Min Yu will present our paper, "Multiproduct Supply Chain Network Design with Applications to Healthcare," which is co-authored with Dr. Patrick Qiang.

Min will also be taking part in the doctoral consortium at the POMS Conference and Dr. Qiang has been selected, and will take part, in the Emerging Scholars program.

Regretfully, I will not be going to the POMS Conference since I will be giving a talk at a memorial symposium at Cornell University on the legacy of Walter Isard. My doctoral students are certain to have a wonderful experience!

So, You are a Surgeon, Since You Do Operations!

When I fly, which is often, I always bring along some work, which may include papers to review, a paper that I am writing, a presentation that I am going over, and/or articles to read.

Oftentimes, my airplane seat-mates will get curious, and will ask what kind of work I do and if I reply that I work in Operations Research, inevitably, I get a response akin to "So, you do surgeries!" I don't like to disappoint and respond that, yes, I am a doctor, but a PhD, and not a medical doctor.

But the work that we do is not unlike that of a surgeon -- we have years of education, we prep, we train students (think -- surgical residents), we often work with collaborators, as in a surgical team, and we focus with precision and concentration as we analyze the world and data around us, construct the proofs, and code our algorithms. The postoperative period and patient care are like waiting for those referees' reports, which sometimes requires a lot of patience, as we wonder whether the paper (patient) will make it through and be published (survive), or not ! And, hopefully, we don't get too bloodied in the process. Also, what excitement when we see our results going forward and making an impact.

Now, with more members of the O.R. community heavily involved in healthcare, we are drawing even closer to "being surgeons."

Some of the push / pull for O.R. in healthcare, is coming from students, who see this as an area in which they can make positive contributions. For example, speaking from personal experience, one of my doctoral students has been researching blood supply chains, from analysis to design, with help from the American Red Cross, whereas another has been focusing on the optimal design of multiproduct supply chains with healthcare applications.

Blood supply chains present unique challenges, since this is a highly perishable, but life-saving product.

As for supply chains for healthcare products, which include vaccines and medicines, just recall the shortages of H1N1 vaccine last year, and the shortages of the leukemia critical drug, cytarabine, this year. A leukemia patient in our area, could not get this drug for her treatment at Mass General Hospital, a leading hospital, because of the shortage!

My doctoral students will be presenting their papers, Supply Chain Network Operations Management of a Blood Banking System with Cost and Risk Minimization and Multiproduct Supply Chain Network Design with Applications to Healthcare, at the First Northeast Regional INFORMS Conference at UMass Amherst, May 6-7, 2011.

In the meantime, you may also wish to read the thought-provoking article on healthcare in Cuba by my UMass colleague, Dr. Hari Balasubramanian, the Chair of our conference, that appeared in the most recent issue of ORMS Today. Wouldn't it be nice if doctors still did home visits?!

Take care of yourselves and try to stay healthy!

Talks on Supply Chain Design, Earmarks for Humanitarian Operations, and Supply Disruptions Are Now Online

I am delighted to announce that the presentations in the session that I organized for the 2010 Computational Management Science conference that took place recently in Vienna, Austria are now online.

The talks cover such important and timely topics as supply chain network design for critical needs products, earmarks for humanitarian operations for disaster relief, and vulnerability and disruptions in supply chain networks. The talks are in pdf format and are downloadable.

I thank the invited speakers for their contributions.

Photos from the conference are available here.

Supply Chain Network Design for Critical Needs at NetSci2010

I will be at MIT for the NetSci2010 Conference over the next couple of days and will be presenting the paper, "Supply Chain Network Design for Critical Needs with Outsourcing." The paper has been accepted for publication in the journal, Papers in Regional Science. The presentation may be downloaded here. I will be going with one of my doctoral students, Min Yu, who is a co-author with me of the paper, along with Dr. Qiang "Patrick" Qiang.

The conference should be very interesting and the venue of the Media Lab should be perfect. I am looking forward to seeing many colleagues there.

Sustainable Supply Chain Network Design

We are pleased to announce that the paper, Sustainable Supply Chain Network Design: A Multicriteria Perspective, has been accepted for publication in the International Journal of Sustainable Engineering. The paper is based on research conducted by Professors Anna Nagurney and Ladimer S. Nagurney.

Supply chain networks provide the infrastructure for the production, storage, and distribution of products as varied as pharmaceuticals, vehicles, computers, food products, furniture, and clothing, throughout the globe. Hence, the design of supply chain networks is a topic of engineering importance since it involves the determination of both the sites and the levels of operation of the relevant facilities that enable the manufacture, storage, and delivery of products to the consumers. Sustainability of supply chains has emerged as a major theme in both research and practice since the impacts of climate change have made both producers and consumers more cognizant of their decision-making and how their decisions affect the environment.

In this paper, we developed a rigorous modeling and analytical framework for the design of sustainable supply chain networks. We considered a firm that is engaged in determining the capacities of its various supply chain activities, that is, the manufacturing, storage, and distribution of the product to the demand locations. The firm is faced with both capital costs associated with constructing the link capacities as well as the links' operational costs. Moreover, the firm is aware of the emissions generated associated with the alternative manufacturing plants, storage facilities, and modes of transportation/shipment, which may have different levels of emissions due, for example, to distinct technologies of, respectively, production, storage, and transportation. The firm is assumed to be a multicriteria decision-maker who seeks to not only minimize the total costs associated with design/construction and operation, but also to minimize the emissions generated, with an appropriate weight, which reflects the price of the emissions, associated with the various supply chain network activities. We provided both the network optimization modeling framework and an algorithm, which was then applied to compute solutions to a spectrum of numerical sustainable supply chain design examples in order to illustrate our approach.

The paper may be accessed here.

Transportation Network and Supply Chain Design Talks are Now Online!

Talks, in pdf format, on transportation network design and supply chain network design, given at the Symposium on Transportation Network Design and Economics, at Northwestern University last month, in honor of the visit of Professor Martin Beckmann, are now online.

Professor Hani S. Mahmassani, the Director of the Transportation Center at Northwestern University, and Professor David E. Boyce organized this symposium, which was very successful and generated numerous discussions and research ideas.

The below presentations, given at the Symposium, are available for download from the Transportation Center's site:

• Anna Nagurney:
  Supply chain network design under profit maximization and oligopolistic competition
• David Boyce:
  A road network design methods revisited: expressway spacing and economic evaluation
• John McDonald:
  Approaches to mitigating traffic congestion: A very short survey
• Yanfeng Ouyang:
  Reliable facility location: from supply chain network design to traffic sensor deployment
• T. John Kim:
  Transportation, information and communication technologies, and future cities
• Dirk Brockmann:
  Multi-scale human mobility - what complex network theory can reveal
• Yu (Marco) Nie:
  Pricing-refunding in general transportation networks: when it works and how
• Diego Klabjan:
  Carbon Footprint in Logistics

Professor Ouyang's talk and my talk focused on supply chain network design. My presentation was based on the paper with the same name as my presentation, which was just published in 2010 in the journal, Transportation Research E.

Professor Boyce gave a fascinating historical perspective on road network design with applications to the Chicago area (and beyond).

Professor McDonald spoke on different means of traffic mitigation, whereas Professor Nie discussed pricing and refunding in transportation networks (both very hot topics now).

Professor Kim discussed, from his unique, international perspective, how ICT (information, communication, and transportation) technologies can assist in the problems that cities are facing.

Professor Brockmann gave a physicist's perspective on human mobility and complex network theory (a topic also of great interest to me).

Professor Klabjan spoke on the work that he is interested in regarding modeling the carbon footprint in logistics and the challenges faced by the trucking industry in determining what part of the load contributes what amount to emissions (and who, hence, should pay).

Many thanks to the symposium organizers for putting up these presentations so that anyone interested may benefit from them!