To: Gail McGovern, CEO of the American Red Cross

From: Xun (Crystal) Cui/ Yun Tzu (Gloria) Chen

Date: 05/12/2020

RE: Aiding Africa: Disaster/disease relief plan

1. Network Map

Below chart is showing the different routes workers and supplies may take to reach the African cities from the United States.

2. Plan 1

How can we most quickly move workers from the United States to each of the nine IFRC cities? How long will it take workers and supplies to reach each city using the quickest route? Which routes appear to have significant time bottlenecks that the IFRC should work to reduce? Provide a table and/or network map indicating the quickest route and travel time between the United States and African cities on the network.

In order to get the quickest route for each city, we need to find out the time cost of each route by different transportation first. So we have distance divided by the speed of transportation for each city, then get the traveling time of each route by different transportation. As the below chart and table are shown, the quickest way to move workers is from New York, US to IFRC cities Ndjamena, Chad by Airplane, which takes 20.6 hrs.

The quickest routes of nine African cities.

The quickest routes of three strategic African cities.

Based on the result, if all the cargos and workers are sent followed by this route, IFRC needs to make sure the capacity of this airfield and city is available and enough to carry those supplies. Moreover, the longest way for this network as shown below. It takes 186.46 hours from New York to Luanda, Angola among the nine quickest routes of each city. In addition, it takes 195.09 hours from Jacksonville, FL to Luanda, Angola by ship(among all cities). It takes too long time comparing with other routes. This would be the bottleneck that IFRC needs to work to reduce.

3. Plan 2

How should the IFRC satisfy each African city’s need requirements at minimum cost? Where are the significant bottlenecks in the system that the IFRC should work to reduce? Network Map highlighting the least cost route between the U.S. and African cities.

The minimum cost of the route will be $310,861,288.43. The best solution will follow the routes and requirements as below shown.

As the best solution, both NY and FL are sending cargos to Lusaka, Zambia. It might cause delay or congestion in this airfield. IFRC would need to reduce the the supply to this city. This would be the bottleneck in the system that IFRC can try to reduce. On the other hand, we found with an additional one flight increase in the route from Khartoum, Sudan to Ndjamena, Chad can decrease $10000 in cost. This can also be a task that IRFC can concisder to expand.

3. Plan 3

How can the IFRC maximize the total amount of cargo that reaches Africa? Where are the significant bottlenecks in the system that the IFRC should work to reduce? Provide a table and/or network map highlighting the maximum cargo and routes between the U.S. and African cities.

The above screenshot demonstrate how the maximum amount of cargo 816170 tons are distrubuted from New Yor and Florida to nine different African cities by different transportation. Dakar and Khartoum are taking supplies from both NY and FL, and distributing all supplies to three different African strategic cities. IFRC might need to consider the time and arrangement of this two cities.

Conclusion

We would like to discuss the analysis further if there is anything not clear or needs to be elaborated more. Please do not hesitate to contact us through our information: & . Thank you!

Best regards,

Xun (Crystal) Cui/ Yun Tzu (Gloria) Chen