Citation

Bigman D, Weksler I. Math. Model. 1983; 4(5): 451-466.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1983, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/0270-0255(83)90049-0

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This paper develops a methodological framework for designing and evaluating an emergency stock system aimed at supplying the needs of the population in the event that an emergency situation (drought, war, embargo) will not allow the regular flow of supply. The functioning of the emergency stock system is described as a stochastic process, assumed to be a Markov process and the stock size and storage rules are the control variables. The main performance criterion is the costs of attaining a certain level of reliability which is deemed necessary by the policy maker, where the system's reliability is defined as the probability that in all possible emergency situations, the amount in storage will suffice to meet the demand.