Multi-Objective Optimization Approach for Managing Volunteers in Supply Chain and Crisis Logistics

One of the most important factors affecting the rate of damages and casualties during natural disasters is the existence
of an effective crisis management system in which the volunteers are recognized as the main factor.
In the present research, a multi-objective model has been introduced for allocating volunteers with different skills
and different levels thereof to humanitarian affairs. The objectives of the model are to minimize total unfulfilled
demands as well as increasing volunteers’ job satisfaction. Specifically, in this article the crisis zone has been
divided into smaller groups; then the volunteers with different skills of different levels were allocated to them
depending on each zone needs; in a way, that total degree of volunteers’ abilities in each group is more than the
threshold specified by the decision-makers. Finally, the introduced model was solved by an LP-metric and in order to assess the behavior of the model, a sensitivity analysis has been carried out on various parameters.
The results show that volunteers must be assigned to affairs related to their skills, but to the extent that the total of
unmet demands does not increase more than usual