TITLE:  Tactical Decision Making in Public Health and Humanitarian Response

COURSE DESCRIPTION

Numerous tactical decisions must be made in the response to a public health or humanitarian event. Many of these decisions are concerned with the timely and efficient procurement, allocation, and distribution of resources (e.g. funds, supplies, volunteers) through a supply chain. This course will explore methodologies for tactical decision making including procurement and inventory policies, strategies for distribution and allocation of limited resources, and transportation decisions.

WHO SHOULD ATTEND

• Tactical & strategic members of Non-governmental organizations
• Private corporations involved in the humanitarian relief efforts
• US Federal government employees
• US State or local government employees
• Humanitarian Foundation members
• TITLES: Program Managers, Director of Field Operations, Disaster Relief Manager, Director of Logistics & Inventory, Logistics Officers

HOW YOU WILL BENEFIT

Upon completion of this course, you will be able to:

• Optimize procurement decisions considering key factors affecting inventory policies such as lead time, variability, and product type (e.g., perishable goods).
• Compare and contrast inventory techniques for a single event versus ongoing operations.
• Evaluate resource allocation tradeoffs in response to a health or humanitarian crisis and develop policies for the allocation of scarce resources in alignment with the supply chain network.
• Develop resource allocation strategies in alignment with the supply chain network structure.
• Optimize routing and storage of supplies on the transportation network across time and mitigate bottlenecks.
• Develop strategies for allocating funds incorporating the interdependencies of decisions across time and space.
• Provide immediate impact to their organization through learnings gained from applied and real-world case studies
• Learn to bring NGOs, businesses, and/or government entities together to enhance collaboration, cooperation, and communication
• Discover current trends and procedures to help their organizations and team members get ahead and stay ahead of the curve
• Build a critical knowledge base to make tactical decisions around inventory, routing, and distribution
• Deliver best-practices to measure and evaluate outcomes of humanitarian relief efforts
• Ultimately transform the humanitarian sector with increased capacity to participate in planning and strategic decision-making for effective supply chain management

WHAT IS COVERED

Pre-Course Activities (4.5 hrs) - Online via MoodleRooms
Classroom Activities (2.5 days) - Georgia Tech Global Learning Center
Post-Course Activities (3.5 hrs) - Online via MoodleRooms

NOTE: Pre-course and post-course activities will conducted online using the MoodleRooms online learning management system. Access instructions will be provided to registrants when details become available.

Pre-Course Activities - Conducted online via MoodleRooms

• Inventory – 3.5 hours
• Resource Allocation – 1 hour

Classroom Activities

Day 1

• Inventory

Day 2

• Resource Allocation

Day 3

• Transportation Decisions

Post-Course Activities - Conducted online via MoodleRooms

• Inventory – 1 hour
• Resource Allocation – 1.5 hours
• Transportation Decisions – 1 hour

COURSE MATERIALS

Participants receive readings, case studies, spreadsheet files, and lecture slides, and will be given access to the pre- and post-course web-based activities.

STUDENT REQUIREMENTS

Students need a laptop with Microsoft Excel and the ability to connect to a high-speed internet connection (internet access is provided for onsite portions of course).

COURSE PREREQUISITES

None.

CERTIFICATE INFORMATION

This course counts as two points towards the Health and Humanitarian Logistics Certificate.

PROGRAM TIMES

The on-campus program will begin at 8:30 a.m. each day, with registration at 8:00 a.m. on the first day. The program will end at 5:30 p.m. each day with a lunch break from 12:30–1:30 p.m.