Relief Supply Chain Research Articles

Swift trust and commitment: The missing links for humanitarian supply chain coordination?

Coordination among actors in a humanitarian relief supply chain decides whether a relief operation can be or successful or not. In humanitarian supply chains, due to the urgency and importance of the situation combined with scarce resources, actors have to coordinate and trust each other in order to achieve joint goals. This paper investigated empirically the role of swift trust as mediating variable for achieving supply chain coordination. Based on commitment-trust theory we explore enablers of swift-trust and how swift trust translates into coordination through commitment. Based on a path analytic model we test data from the National Disaster Management Authority of India. Our study is the first testing commitment-trust theory in the humanitarian context, highlighting the importance of swift trust and commitment for much thought after coordination. Furthermore, the study shows that information sharing and behavioral uncertainty reduction act as enablers for swift trust. The study findings offer practical guidance and suggest that swift trust is a missing link for the success of humanitarian supply chains.

Humanitarian relief supply chain: a multi-objective model and solution

This paper models a humanitarian relief chain that includes a relief goods supply chain and an evacuation chain in case of a natural disaster. Optimum network flow is studied for both the chains by considering three conflicting objectives, namely demand satisfaction in relief chain, demand satisfaction in evacuation chain and overall logistics cost. The relief goods supply chain consists of three echelons: suppliers, relief camps and affected areas. The evacuation chain consists of two echelons: evacuation camps and affected areas. The model has been made more resilient by considering multiple paths between any two locations and disruption of camps and paths due to natural factors. The Mixed Integer Programming problem has been solved using NSGA-III and results have been compared to those from benchmark algorithms. The model has been successfully tested on generated real-life-like data.

Food Network Resilience Against Natural Disasters: A Conceptual Framework

We propose a conceptual framework that highlights the importance of logistics, collaboration, sourcing, and knowledge management in achieving supply chain resilience. This framework is developed after extensive literature review of relief supply chains, supply chain resilience, and disaster management disciplines. This review reveals that our understanding of supply chain resilience for food supply chains in a disaster scenario is still in its infancy. We note the lack of any consolidated framework or generalized theory in this area. Different topics related to resilience are usually discussed in isolation; hence, this research has attempted to combine different concepts drawn from various areas into one framework. We postulate that food supply chains can develop certain capabilities such as agility, adaptability, and alignment within the four supply chain domains of logistics, collaboration, sourcing, and knowledge management. Supply chain orientation and risk management culture plays the facilitating role in this framework. Adopting this systems approach would allow greater insights into how food supply chains can become more resilient to natural disasters.

Eating at the limits: Barriers to the emergence of social enterprise initiatives in the Australian emergency food relief sector

This article explores the absence of social enterprise responses to food insecurity in Australia. Continued growth in demand from chronically food insecure consumers and criticism of the dominant food bank model of gifted food support has led to the development of ‘community supermarkets’ that charge consumers for donated food in countries including Canada, the United Kingdom, France and Italy, but not in Australia. This research investigates barriers to the development of community supermarkets in Australia through in-depth interviews with senior staff within seven organizations involved in the food relief supply chain, as well as a pilot survey of 38 food insecure consumers. The results of this research are analyzed through the lens of ‘voluntary failure’ theory and highlight systemic barriers to the reach of social enterprise as a mechanism for addressing food insecurity.

Disaster Relief Inventory Management: Horizontal Cooperation between Humanitarian Organizations

Cooperation among humanitarian organizations has attracted increasing attention to enhance effectiveness and efficiency of relief supply chains. Our research focuses on horizontal cooperation in inventory management which is currently implemented in the United Nations Humanitarian Response Depot (UNHRD) network. The present work follows a two‐step research approach, which involves collection of empirical data and quantitative modeling to examine and overcome the coordination challenges of the network. Our interviews with members of the network identified several managerial issues for sustainable cooperative inventory management that the UNHRD network pursues. Using a newsvendor model in the context of non‐cooperative game theory, our research has explored member humanitarian organizations' incentive of joining the network, a coordination mechanism which achieves system optimality, and impacts of members' decisions about stock rationing. Our results indicate that behaviors of member HOs do not necessarily align with the UNHRD's expectation. Our results suggest that for system optimality, a system coordinator should carefully assess the circumstances, including demand coefficient and stock rationing. Our research also proposes a policy priority for the first‐best system optimal inventory management.

Stochastic optimisation model for integrated decisions on relief supply chains: preparedness for disaster response

This paper proposes a stochastic linear mixed-integer programming model for integrated decisions in the preparedness and response stages in pre- and post-disaster operations, respectively. We develop a model for integrated decisions that considers three key areas of emergency logistics: facility and stock prepositioning, evacuation planning and relief vehicle planning. To develop a framework for effective relief operations, we consider not only a cost-based but also an equity-based solution approach in our multiple objectives model. Then a normalised weighted sum method is used to parameterise our multiple objective programming model. This paper suggests a compromise between the cost, and the equity of relief victims. The experiments also demonstrate how time restrictions and the availability of relief vehicles impact the two objective functions.

Self-Sufficient Healthcare Logistics Systems and Responsiveness: Ten Cases of Foreign Field Hospitals Deployed to Disaster Relief Supply Chains

Recent disasters around the globe illustrate the unpredictability of their timing and the severity of their impact, making aid operations highly uncertain and complex. The aftermath of sudden-impact disasters, such as civil conflicts, wars, and natural disasters, are typically characterized by chaos and the urgent need for medical care for a massive number of casualties; however, damage to local healthcare infrastructures usually render them unable to deliver needed services. Foreign field hospitals, innovative self-sufficient emergency healthcare logistics systems deployed outside the hospitals’ country, constitute a temporary solution until the local facilities are repaired or rebuilt. These types of healthcare logistics system have been deployed with great success. However, not much is known about factors that may account for their success in the supply chain literature. In this study, we investigate military foreign field hospitals and explore general factors that may account for their effectiveness. Specifically, we look into military healthcare logistics systems, specifically foreign field hospitals (FFHs), to explore factors that may account for their responsiveness. We examine ten successful deployments of an experienced and effective military FFH through an exploratory case analysis to shed light into factors that may account for its success. Various propositions and avenues for future research are developed.

Managing the humanitarian relief chain: the Uttarakhand disaster issues

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to identify various issues and challenges humanitarian supply chain faces on the ground level. The paper aims at defining the major problems and searching for their possible solutions with the help of available literature and interaction of ground level experience. Design/methodology/approach The authors focus on building a theory and propose solutions for the real time problems faced in the disaster environment. To solve its purpose, besides taking the insights from available and relevant literature, paper has followed ground level experience of the concerned people in supply chain as well. Authors have quoted the real time examples and statements in order to make the situation more clear and precise. Findings Humanitarian relief supply chain in today’s environment often confronts the challenges such as information availability, inventory management, collaboration, logistics related issues, preparedness etc. The study explores various challenges. After searching roots of these challenges in literature it proposes some considerable solutions which can be further studied for their validity, acceptability and implementation. Research limitations/implications The research has considered only the natural disasters and not the manmade ones. It has also taken examples from Indian conditions. However, the conditions in other countries and their practices for the disaster management may vary to certain extent. There are many disasters such as volcanos which do not have a historical record of striking in Indian conditions which confine the authorities to disaster specific practices. Practical implications The research initiates further work in this area on various issues explored in the study. There is scope of separate attention on each of the issues discussed. The study will help the humanitarian relief practitioners to understand the insights of disaster situations. It will convince the practitioners and future researchers on focusing and analyzing the proposed frameworks. Originality/value The paper presents issues from real time situations at the ground level in humanitarian relief environment. With the help of literature authors have tried to conceptualize these issues and their “can be” solutions.

Humanitarian Relief Supply Chain Performance Evaluation: A Literature Review

<p>Nowadays small, medium and severe disasters are threatening our world. One of the important role players in alleviating these traits are humanitarian relief supply chains. The increasing number of disasters in our planet earth urges the humanitarian relief supply chains to focus on the assurance of safety of the victims. In order for this to occur, these supply chains should work effectively and efficiently. This can be possible through considerable evaluation of their supply chain performance. In this paper a literature review on supply chain performance evaluation in general and humanitarian relief supply chain performance in particular is presented. Previously conducted researches from the year 2000 until the present time have been reviewed. The works were categorized according to writers, publication year, publishing journal, technique utilized and objective intended. Then an analysis was made on humanitarian relief supply chain literature with respect to the publishing journals and the research technique applied. The result shows that humanitarian relief supply chain evaluation is almost an untouched area which needs further study. Recent supply chain management techniques can be applied for the improved performance of these supply chains. Based on this result, Supply Chain Operations Reference (SCOR), Fuzzy Logic System, and Artificial Neural Networks are found to be the areas which need further study.</p>

A Mean-Variance Disaster Relief Supply Chain Network Model for Risk Reduction with Stochastic Link Costs, Time Targets, and Demand Uncertainty

In this paper, we develop a mean-variance disaster relief supply chain network model with stochastic link costs and time targets for delivery of the relief supplies at the demand points, under demand uncertainty. The humanitarian organization seeks to minimize its expected total operational costs and the total risk in operations with an individual weight assigned to its valuation of the risk, as well as the minimization of expected costs of shortages and surpluses and tardiness penalties associated with the target time goals at the demand points. The risk is captured through the variance of the total operational costs, which is relevant to the reporting of the proper use of funds to stakeholders, including donors. The time goal targets associated with the demand points enable prioritization as to the timely delivery of relief supplies. The framework handles both the pre-positioning of relief supplies, whether local or nonlocal, as well as the procurement (local or nonlocal), transport, and distribution of supplies post-disaster. The time element is captured through link time completion functions as the relief supplies progress along paths in the supply chain network. Each path consists of a series of directed links, from the origin node, which represents the humanitarian organization, to the destination nodes, which are the demand points for the relief supplies. We propose an algorithm, which yields closed form expressions for the variables at each iteration, and demonstrate the efficacy of the framework through a series of illustrative numerical examples, in which trade-offs between local versus nonlocal procurement, post- and pre-disaster, are investigated. The numerical examples include a case study on hurricanes hitting Mexico.

A 3-R principle for characterizing failure in relief supply chains’ response to natural disasters

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to introduce a 3R (right time, right place, and right material) principle for characterizing failure in humanitarian/relief supply chains’ response to natural disasters, and describes a Bayesian methodology of the failure odds with regard to external factors that may affect the disaster-relief outcome, and distinctive supply chain proneness to failure. Design/methodology/approach – The suggested 3Rs combine simplicity and completeness, enclosing all aspects of the 7R principle popular within business logistics. A fixed effects logistic regression model is designed, with a Bayesian approach, to relate the supply chains’ odds for success in disaster-relief to potential environmental predictors, while accounting for distinctive supply chains’ proneness to failure. Findings – Analysis of simulated data demonstrate the model’s ability to distinguish relief supply chains with regards to their disaster-relief failure odds, taking into account pertinent external factors and supply chain idiosyncrasies. Research limitations/implications – Due to the complex nature of natural disasters and the scarcity of subsequent data, the paper employs computer-simulated data to illustrate the implementation of the proposed methodology. Originality/value – The 3R principle offers a simple and familiar basis for evaluating failure in relief supply chains’ response to natural disasters. Also, it brings the issues of customer orientation within humanitarian relief and supply operations to the fore, which had only been implicit within the humanitarian and relief supply chain literature.

Emergency relief supply chain design and trade-off analysis

Purpose – Emergency relief supply chain (ERSC) design is an important strategic decision that significantly affects the overall performance of emergency management activities. The performance of an ERSC can be measured by several performance measures some of which may conflict with each other. The purpose of this paper is to propose an ERSC design framework by simultaneously taking total logistics cost (TLC), risk level, and amount of demands covered in an ERSC into consideration. Design/methodology/approach – The study considers TLC of an ERSC as the sum of logistics cost from distribution warehouses (DWHs) to Break of Bulbs (BOBs) and from BOBs to affected neighborhoods. The risk level of an ERSC is measured by estimating the expected number of disrupted relief items (EDI) distributed from DWHs through BOBs to neighborhoods. The covered demand (CDM) is defined as total populations that are supported in case of an emergency, the populations within the maximal coverage distance (MCD) from relief facilities. Based on these performance measures, the authors formulate a Goal Programming (GP) model to distribute emergency relief items to affected locations. Ideal values of these performance measures are decided, and the GP model seeks to minimize the weighted sum of the percentage deviations of those performance measures from the ideal values. The relationships among performance measures have been thoroughly analyzed through detailed trade-off studies under two realistic case studies by changing weights of each performance measure. Findings – Three performance measures are interdependent over specific values of weights. TLC and EDI have a trade-off relationship when the weight on each measure increases. TLC and CDM also have a trade-off relationship when the weight on EDI increases. However, this relationship becomes less apparent when the MCD increases. EDI and CDM also have the same trade-off relationship when the weight on TLC changes. Therefore, decision makers should thoroughly analyze these trade-off relationships when they design ERSCs. Overall, the study identified that an ERSC with higher MCD outperforms one with lower MCD in terms of TLC, EDI, and CDM. Originality/value – The study presents a design framework to generate more balanced ERSCs by simultaneously taking three conflicting performance measures into consideration, and demonstrated the feasibility of the framework through realistic case studies. The trade-off analysis provides useful insights and theoretical knowledge to researchers and practitioners in the discipline of emergency logistics management. The results from this study are expected to contribute to the development of more balanced ERSCs.

Pre-purchasing with option contract and coordination in a relief supply chain

In humanitarian operations management, a supply and purchasing issue has long plagued practitioners and scholars. A strategy that involves the purchase of relief supplies immediately after a disaster (instant purchasing) can reduce operational cost. However, purchasing price and possible supply scarcity are high because of the time urgency. Alternatively, pre-purchasing relief supplies is a strategy that is characterized by a low purchase price. However, this approach entails a loss associated with the uncertainty of demand and an increase in inventory cost. To resolve this problem, we introduce a supply chain methodology into humanitarian operations management by considering the system as a relief supply chain. We determine that pre-purchasing relief supplies from a supplier with an option contract is superior to both pre-purchasing with a buyback contract and instant-purchasing with a return policy. An option contract enables the coordination of a relief supply chain and the achievement of Pareto improvement. Additionally, with consideration of the risk level and preference, profit distribution with an option contract becomes acceptable for both the supplier and the purchaser.

Humanitarian logistics: the role of logistics service providers

Purpose – In recent years, logistics service providers (LSPs) have become important players in the humanitarian field, providing support for NGOs and governments when they respond to major disasters. However, the academic literature on humanitarian logistics has not really explored the roles that LSPs play in relief supply chains. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of LSPs in humanitarian relief. Design/methodology/approach – The research uses a two-stage exploratory approach: first, it systematically reviews the humanitarian logistics literature to see the extent to which LSPs are taken into account. Then it analyses the web sites of leading LSPs to examine how they communicate about their role in humanitarian relief. Findings – This research produces some surprising findings. While the academic literature seems to neglect the roles of LSPs in humanitarian logistics, some major third-party firms highlight their roles in relief networks. A number of research propositions are presented de...

Proactive and reactive inventory policies in humanitarian operations

Inventory planning for the pre- and post-disaster phases of disaster relief lifecycle is a challenging problem associated with the humanitarian relief supply chains. In this work, two mathematical models are presented encompassing the whole disaster relief lifecycle. By accounting for holding costs of perishable supplies, a two-stage stochastic programming model is first developed by which the inventory prepositioning locations, inventory levels, and shortterm distribution quantities are determined. For the recovery phase, this research adapts the well-known continuous review (Q, r) inventory model for relief warehouses while accounting for the inherent epistemic uncertainty in the required data by using the fuzzy programming. A case study of Iranian Red Cross is also provided to illustrate the applicability of the first model and to demonstrate how it supports the two first phases of disaster lifecycle. Additionally, a numerical example is presented to demonstrate the applicability of the (Q, r) model for the recovery phase. Lastly, the impact of penalty costs on the solutions is discussed.

Humanitarian Relief Logistics with Time Restriction: Thai Flooding Case Study

Shortages and delays in a humanitarian logistics system can contribute to the pain and suffering of survivors or other affected people. Humanitarian logistics budgets should be sufficient to prevent such shortages or delays. Unlike commercial supply chain systems, the budgets for relief supply chain systems should be able to satisfy demand. This study describes a comprehensive model in an effort to satisfy the total relief demand by minimizing logistics operations costs. We herein propose a strategic model which determines the locations of distribution centers and the total inventory to be stocked for each distribution center where a flood or other catastrophe may occur. The proposed model is formulated and solved as a mixed-integer programming problem that integrates facility location and inventory decisions by considering capacity constraints and time restrictions in order to minimize the total cost of relief operations. The proposed model is then applied to a real flood case involving 47 disaster areas and 13 distribution centers in Thailand. Finally, we discuss the sensitivity analysis of the model and the managerial implications of this research.

Developing a Model for Agility in Health Humanitarian Supply Chains using Factor Analysis: Evidence From Iran

Background: Since 2000, increase in frequency and severity of natural disasters has necessitate designing an agile relief supply chain to help to affected people. Objectives: This study aimed to develop an agile model for supply chains with emphasis on health services in Iranian relief organizations. Materials and Methods: This was a descriptive-comparative study. In order to design the conceptual model, agility patterns of supply chains were reviewed in a comparative study. Moreover, a questionnaire was prepared to examine construct (model) validation. The validity of questionnaire was confirmed by the judgment of experts and its reliability was ensured by test-retest method with scale of 0.99, and Cronbach's alpha of 0.98. All data were analyzed through factor analyses by SPSS 16 and LISREL 8.53. Results: Responsiveness, effectiveness, and flexibility with eigenvalue of 2.628 were identified as the main aspects of agility in humanitarian health supply chains. The components of visibility, reactivity, and speed were identified as components of responsiveness. Quality, reliability, and completeness were identified as components of effectiveness. Volume, delivery, mix, and product were known as components of flexibility. Conclusions: Findings confirmed agility dimensions and relationships between them in a model that can be considered as a comprehensive and appropriate model in the establishment, promotion, and evaluation of relief supply chains by policy-makers and authorities of Red Crescent Society and Medical Emergencies.

An overview of humanitarian relief supply chains for victims of perennial flood disasters in Lagos, Nigeria (2010-2012)

Purpose – Lagos is flooded perennially due to its low-lying coastal location. Empirical studies on the impacts of the disaster and humanitarian relief for the victims are scanty. The purpose of this paper is to assess the causes and severity of the floods, the aids to victims and the supply chains in six flood-prone local government areas (LGAs) of the metropolis comparatively. Design/methodology/approach – Data were collected using a questionnaire instrument that was administered to 292 victims and/or residents of 42 flooded neighborhoods in six LGAs of Lagos in the years 2010-2012. The administration was some few weeks after major incidences were reported for the respective years. Findings – The results show that floods are recurrent in the areas during every wet season (between May and October), emanate from both natural and human-induced causes and lead to large-scale human displacement and loss of assets. Humanitarian reliefs are from neighbors, spiritual homes and relatives mostly and are supplied directly to victims. These suggest gloomy implications for sustainable disaster management, humanitarian services and supply chains. Areas for further studies are highlighted. Originality/value – Studies in humanitarian relief and supply chains are scanty in the part of the world. The paper is original and not been considered for publication elsewhere.

Disaster relief supply chain quality management (DRSCQM)

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop a framework for disaster relief supply chain quality management (DRSCQM). Design/methodology/approach – This paper introduces a structured approach to making decisions in the following areas: system foundation, system constraints, initial sudden natural disaster encounter point(s), the intensity of disaster, the efficacy of the disaster relief supply chain systems, and post-disaster relief management. Findings – The context-intervention-mechanism-outcome logic provides guidelines for facilitating Lean Six Sigma to eliminate wastes and improve the overall performance of the DRSCQM. Research limitations/implications – The theoretical frameworks will enhance the current knowledge base in DRSCQM literature and will also be helpful to manage disaster relief operations and supply chains. However, there is a need to conduct empirical studies based on the proposed frameworks in the future. Practical implications – A transformation process based on Dr Deming's plan-do-check-act cycle has also been proposed to show how a relief organization can assess its current maturity level, react to it, develop more sustainable disaster relief practices, and move the entire system in the right direction. Social implications – The systemic and holistic procedure developed in this paper views the environment of disaster relief as dynamic, complex, chaotic, and ever-changing and takes into account the fact that relief organizations’ actions often involve a team of diverse specialists working on a project basis. Originality/value – The framework presented here helps to improve the efficiency and the effectiveness of disaster relief supply chain management. This is timely and important now as there continues to be an increase in climate-related natural disasters.

Service outsourcing and disaster response methods in a relief supply chain

Private enterprises, such as Wal-Mart and Home Depot, have implemented effective relief efforts in responding to Hurricane Katrina in 2005. From the perspective of operation research, the factors of this success have been addressed as quick response, pre-position and logistic expertise. However, the waste made by FEMA for stockpiling food and ice in anticipation of a busy hurricane season in 2006 and several other cases indicate otherwise. In this paper, we introduce the private enterprise into a relief supply chain and propose an outsourcing framework to uncover the reason of Wal-Mart’s success and provide explanations to the counter-cases. Our study shows that the effective relief effort carried out by private enterprises in responding to Hurricane Katrina in 2005 attributes to the combination of proactive response method and logistic expertise. Our findings advocate adopting different strategies to deal with different types of relief supplies. Specifically, the proactive insourcing strategy is good enough for a relief supply chain involving only imperishable relief supplies. For perishable goods, the proactive outsourcing strategy can make a relief supply more efficient.