Applications of operations research (O.R.) have made for an efficient use of limited resources since World War II. Since that war, O.R. has been a tool for increasing market efficiencies and making supply chains stronger. Generations later, some practitioners of O.R. are applying the tools of O.R. to break illicit supply chains that rely on forced labor.

Forced labor includes the commercial exploitation of humans for monetary gain or benefit. It is a modern form of slavery where human rights are violated in both impoverished and wealthy countries. There are an estimated 30-40 million victims including housekeepers, nannies, industrial laborers in mining, fishing, and agricultural industries; child soldiers, and child victims of commercial sexual exploitation.

Supply chains globally have been tainted with the blood, sweat, and tears of some of our most vulnerable children, women, and men. They have been forced to engage in hard labor, sexual acts, and demeaning behavior against their will for the profit of another. Decades of research on prescriptive analytics to create supply-chain efficiencies produced as a byproduct, lessons on what makes supply chains break down. A supply chain is considered broken when there is a serious disruption or delay in the flow of cash, services, material, or information.

The INFORMS community recognizes the array of powerful operations research tools available to support decisions and policies to break the supply chains that rely on forced labor; therefore, this Editor’s Cut volume has three sections. The first section introduces forced labor, human trafficking, sex trafficking, and the commercial sexual exploitation of children. It also provides an overview of O.R. methods, models, and applications to combat forced labor in supply chains. The second section includes content on reducing the demand for products and services procured through a supply chain that includes forced labor. Demand for cheap labor and sexual exploitation of women, girls, and boys are driving factors in illicit supply chains. The O.R. models to tackle demand were derived from organization science and competition strategy. The third section provides content on reducing the supply of victims. Supply is driven by crime, war, or the victim’s real or perceived lack of a basic physical or emotional need. Efforts to reduce supply use O.R. tools such as decision analysis, systems thinking, and dynamic programming. Together, these three sections provide the reader with a body of work representing efforts to directly or indirectly break supply chains for forced labor.

Whether you are looking for innovative uses of O.R. tools to tackle the global problem of forced labor, inspiration for your next major research contribution, or classroom examples to inspire the next generation, this Editor’s Cut volume displays INFORMS researchers connecting the head and the heart of the matter. As the world becomes smaller with the injustices and sufferings of strangers hitting closer to home, the work of the featured authors demonstrates impressive results and the potential impact of the INFORMS community in breaking supply chains that rely on forced labor for generations to come.