Industrial Engineering Seminar Series - Irem Sengul Orgut

Title: Equitable Distribution of Perishable Items in a Food Bank Supply Chain

Abstract: In the United States, food banks play an important role in helping to reduce the rate of food insecurity by distributing donated food among the population in need. One of the challenges that food banks face is to equitably distribute food donations among their clients such that, ideally, each recipient receives the same amount of food. They aim to do so while minimizing waste that occurs due to spoilage and capacity limitations. Perishable food items present specific challenges since they are susceptible to spoilage and need to be distributed before their expiry dates. Based on our longstanding partnership with a large food bank located in the southeastern United States, we present a capacitated, multiperiod, multiproduct network flow model to help them equitably and effectively distribute perishable food donations among the food-insecure population in their service region. The model is applied within the context of a case study and reveals managerial insights that would be useful to practitioners. Our findings show that although equity is one of the food bank’s highest priorities, inequities cannot be eliminated completely. Given the inevitability of inequitable food allocations in practice, this paper provides food banks guidance on how to strategically control inequities using two approaches: (i) by increasing the number of periods for which equity should be satisfied or (ii) by allowing deviations from a perfectly equitable distribution. The results show that modest deviations from perfect equity using either approach can lead to significant improvements in both the quality and quantity of food distributed and can also reduce food waste. While approach (ii) is preferable, the most desirable outcomes occur when both are applied simultaneously. We also find that county capacities inhibit a food bank’s ability to achieve balance between equity and effectiveness when distributing perishables. Our framework provides food banks the flexibility to balance the trade-off between effectiveness and equity based on their preferences. 

Bio: Irem Sengul Orgut is an Assistant Professor of Operations Management and an Assistant Director at the Institute of Data and Analytics at Culverhouse College of Business at the University of Alabama (UA). Prior to joining UA, she worked as Analytics Project Manager at Lenovo in North Carolina, USA. Dr. Orgut received her Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering with a minor in Statistics at North Carolina State University in 2015. She received dual B.Sc. degrees in Industrial Engineering and Mechanical Engineering from Bogazici University, Istanbul, Turkey in 2010. Dr. Orgut’s research focuses on using analytics and operations research methods to address problems that involve multiple decision-makers with conflicting objectives and various sources of uncertainty in the context of humanitarian operations management and medical decision-making. She is specifically interested in developing easy-to-implement and interpret policies and algorithms that combine statistical learning with optimization. In her role at the Institute of Data and Analytics at UA, she directs the UPWARD (Underserved Populations Workgroup for Analytics Research and Development) Initiative that aims to use data and analytics methods to solve unique challenges faced by humanitarian and nonprofit organizations and alleviate the well-being of underserved populations. Dr. Orgut’s research appeared in journals including Production and Operations Management (POM), European Journal of Operational Research (EJOR), and IISE Transactions. She is an active member of the Institute for Operations Research and Management Science (INFORMS), serves on the board of the Forum for Women in OR/MS (WORMS) as secretary, and serves on the editorial review board of Decision Sciences Journal. She has won several awards with her research including the UA Excellence in Community-Engaged Scholarship Award for Civic Engagement and First Place at INFORMS Interactive Poster Competition. Her research has been supported by the National Science Foundation and featured on the National Science Foundation Website and the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) News.