Decision support for Foodbank South Africa

This paper employs a combined 'soft-hard' OR approach to aid decision making in the area of allocation at a not-for-profit organization, Foodbank South Africa (FBSA), that represents the largest hunger-relief network in South Africa. Two problem-structuring tools, causal mapping and root d...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inOrion (Johannesburg, South Africa) Vol. 30; no. 1; pp. 1 - 18
Main Authors Watson, NM, Stewart, TJ, Scott, L
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Johannesburg Operations Research Society of South Africa 03.06.2014
Operations Research Society of South Africa (ORSSA)
Subjects
Decision support systems
Food programs
Operations research
Poverty
Simulation
Studies
South Africa
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Summary:This paper employs a combined 'soft-hard' OR approach to aid decision making in the area of allocation at a not-for-profit organization, Foodbank South Africa (FBSA), that represents the largest hunger-relief network in South Africa. Two problem-structuring tools, causal mapping and root definitions (RDs) are utilized. Causal mapping is used to identify areas for useful research within FBSA, and gain a greater understanding of the organization in terms of its goals and consequently a good appreciation of the context in which decisions are made. Root definitions are employed to acquire a better understanding of the 'decision-issues' within the allocation system at the Cape Town warehouse. A simulation model is developed to imitate daily allocation decisions, with the end-objective of assisting decision-making by developing a range of allocation policies. A decision support system (DSS) is developed to help FBSA manage their agency database, automate some of the daily allocation decisions and simulate allocation policies. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]
ISSN:2224-0004
0259-191X
2224-0004
DOI:10.5784/30-1-142