This paper aims to develop the tentative hypothesis that common effective dynamics generate asymmetry volatility and unpredictability in the business, military and humanitarian logistics sectors.
By constantly working in environments with high degree of uncertainty, humanitarian organizations end up becoming specialists in the implementation of agile systems. Their counterparts in profit-making organizations have a lot to learn from them in this domain. Volatility of demand, imbalance between supply and demand and disruptions are all factors that affect commercial supply chains and call…
The purpose of this paper is to explore, analyse and discuss the published concepts of “the customer” and “customer service” in the context of managing international emergency relief chains.
The purpose of this paper is to explore, analyse and discuss the published concepts of “the customer” and “customer service” in the context of managing international emergency relief chains.
This paper aims to develop the tentative hypothesis that common effective dynamics generate asymmetry volatility and unpredictability in the business, military and humanitarian logistics sectors.
The purpose of this paper is to present an operations research (OR) model for planning water distribution tours in disaster relief. Especially in situations after a disaster occurrence, characterized by instability and the immediate need of help, high-quality decisions have to be made fast. For this reason, it is very useful if planning decisions can be alleviated by a decision support system (…
The purpose of this article is to investigate the nature of the humanitarian aid supply chain and discuss the extent to which certain business supply chain concepts, particularly supply chain agility, are relevant to humanitarian aid.
The purpose of this paper is to identify the specific stages of the humanitarian logistics process in which the agile and lean principles are needed.
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the concept of agility in the context of supply chains of humanitarian aid (HA) organizations, particularly non-government organizations (NGOs). This responds to the increasing pressure on NGOs to use their resources more strategically if they are to gain donor trust and long-term commitment. Design/methodology/approach – A literature-ba…
Critical success factors (CSFs) have been widely used in the context of commercial supply chains. However, in the context of humanitarian aid (HA) this is a poorly addressed area and this paper therefore aims to set out the key areas for research.
This paper primarily aims to address the following research question: Are techniques and practices developed for uninterrupted, for-profit supply chains adaptable to the not-for-profit (NFP), interrupted context? In other words, can the managerial tools of business logistics be used in humanitarian relief logistics?
The purpose of this paper is to underline the advantages offered by applying the collective strategy model in the context of humanitarian logistics, enriching the existing benefits that operations management and business logistics techniques have brought to the field. In both man-made and natural disaster relief, humanitarian logistics operations have been hampered by a lack of coordination bet…
Humanitarian logistics plays a critical role in the aid response to hunger and disasters worldwide. The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) uses a competitive bidding process to procure P.L. 480 Title II food aid, a $2 billion business annually. This paper describes a mixed-integer program (MIP) decision tool that mimics the USDA bid approach in order to improve ocean carrier and food supplier …
In the field of humanitarianism, cluster thinking has been suggested as a solution to the lack of coordinated disaster response. Clusters for diverse functions, including sheltering, logistics and water and sanitation, can be viewed as an effort to achieve functional coordination. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to a greater understanding of the potential of cluster concepts using su…
The purpose of this paper is to identify the challenges of humanitarian logisticians with respect to different types of disasters, phases of disaster relief and the type of humanitarian organization. A conceptual model is constructed that serves as a basis to identify these challenges.
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 humanitari…
The purpose of this study is to introduce the concept of social welfare chain and address the challenges in decision making through the development of an optimal planning model for a nongovernmental organization (NGO). The distinctive properties of the social welfare chain and its relationship with the humanitarian relief chain in the context of supply chain management are also discussed. The p…
The purpose of this paper is to further the understanding of opportunities involved in horizontal cooperation in disaster relief logistics. The potential and realized benefits of horizontal cooperation in disaster relief logistics, as well as related impediments are investigated.