Developing a sustainable operation management system for food charity organizations

Abstract

In this paper, we study the operation management model used in a non-profit organization operating in food waste management, particularly in slow-onset crisis settings. Then, we build an optimized model and suggest alternative solutions to this non-profit organization in order to ensure its sustainability and efficiency in redistributing the excess a food, which may help to reduce food waste in the country. To do this, we first, conducted a field study to understand the current operation management of this non-profit organization to collect and distribute food. Second, we identified the main challenges faced to perform efficiently. Third, we assess the effects of introducing volunteers on the processing times. Fourth, we built an optimized operation management model to study how operational decisions when introducing volunteers affects on-time distribution in steady conditions. The analysis of supply chain integration and its performance consequences in a slow-onset crisis situation makes this article a valuable contribution to the literature on humanitarian supply chain management.