Decision-making in Strategic Management of the Public Service System

Let us assume that a certain organization financially supports service centers of public interest, sports, cultural, educational, or other. These centers provide the requirements of customers, who are residents. The organization wants to use its funds efficiently so that the public service system achieves maximum usefulness and fairness to the population. With various possible criteria, we will consider the availability of the inhabitant to the service center and the distance of each inhabitant to the service center to be the main ones. If the management of the organization had an audit carried out after a few years of operation, it would show that some centers are not sufficiently used, and others not used in terms of capacity. The population of the nearest center is low, and the center is a little used. There would be a possibility to cancel or relocate the service center. On the other hand, some centers do not have sufficient capacity because their services are used by many inhabitants at an acceptable distance. There would be a solution to increase the number of service centers. It is still about using funds efficiently. To resource the unused centers or not to provide services to residents because of the insufficient capacity? This work deals with the optimization of system by the redistribution of the originally located service centers. I assumed that each center has one or more stations that provide service with a given capacity. Then the service system design task can be modeled as a capacity-limited location task. The XPRESSIVE optimization setting can be used for its implementation. Numerical experiments were performed by using the real data of the Slovak emergency service

Facility Location Planning in Relief Logistics: Decision Support for German Authorities

Disasters have devastating impacts on societies, affecting millions of people and businesses each year. The delivery of essential goods to beneficiaries in the aftermath of a disaster is one of the main objectives of relief logistics. In this context, selecting suitable locations for three different types of essential facilities is central: warehouses, distribution centers, and points of distribution. The present dissertation aims to improve relief logistics by advancing the location selection process and its core components. Five studies published as companion articles address substantial aspects of relief logistics. Despite the case studies\u27 geographical focus on Germany, valuable insights for relief logistics are derived that could also be applied to other countries. Study A addresses the importance of public-private collaboration in disasters and highlights the significance of considering differences in resources, capabilities, and strategies when using logistical models. Moreover, power differences, information sharing, and partner selection also play an important role. Study B elaborates on the challenges to identify candidate locations for warehouses, which are jointly used by public and private actors, and suggests a methodology to approach the collaborative warehouse selection process. Study C investigates the distribution center selection process and highlights that including decision-makers\u27 preferences in the objective function of location selection models helps to raise awareness of the implications of location decisions and increases transparency for decision-makers and the general population. Study D analyzes the urban water supply in disasters using a combination of emergency wells and mobile water treatment systems. Selected locations of mobile systems change significantly if vulnerable parts of the population are prioritized. Study E highlights the importance of accurate information in disasters and introduces a framework that allows determining the value of accurate information and the planning error due to inaccurate information. In addition to the detailed results of the case studies, four general recommendations for authorities are derived: First, it is essential to collect information before the start of the disaster. Second, training exercises or role-playing simulations with companies will help to ensure that planned collaboration processes can be implemented in practice. Third, targeted adjustments to the German disaster management system can strengthen the country\u27s resilience. Fourth, initiating public debates on strategies to prioritize parts of the population might increase the acceptance of the related decision and the stockpiling of goods for the people who know in advance that they will likely not receive support. The present dissertation provides valuable insights into disaster relief. Therefore, it offers the potential to significantly improve the distribution of goods in the aftermath of future disasters and increase disaster resilience