6 Supply Chain Resilience in Disaster Management

Dr. Rajnish Ranjan

Rationale

Since the nature of disaster events has unpleasant consequences for the human beings, having a resilient humanitarian supply chain seems to be vital. This study will discuss the resiliency in humanitarian supply chains and those factors that influence the performance of such supply chains in Disaster Management.

  Supply chain is mainly considered as sets of entities that are collected together in order to encompass their necessary resources to address the final consumers’ needs. According to Douglas H. Norrie (1992) “The supply chain (SC) encompasses all activities associated with the flow and transformation of goods from the raw materials stage (extraction), through to the end user, as well as the associated information flows. Materials and information flow both upstream and downstream the supply chain”.

This definition expands the boundaries of the supply chain activities not only to the flow of goods, but also the information. The need for efficient flow of goods is addressed by a crucial segment of the supply chain logistics, which can be defined as ‘‘the efficient and cost-effective process of planning, Implementation, controlling and integration of the inventory, warehousing and distribution systems as well as the related information to maximize the customer satisfaction and reduce the overall cost as the main part of the supply chain process’’.

Logistics & Supply Chain Management in disaster response

“Supply Chain Management especially in the field of disaster response encompasses the planning and management of all activities involved in sourcing and procurement, conversion, and all logistics management activities with parallel coordination and collaboration along channel partners which can be suppliers, intermediaries, third-party service providers and customers”.

Integration and consolidation of resources is more important to have more efficient and effective performance. Supply Chain Management Center of Nyenrode University has formulated the most embracing definition:-

“Demand and Supply Chain Management (DSCM) is the management of a network that links customers and suppliers as one ‘single entity’ with the objective to create value and reduce waste through the voluntary integration and co-ordination of the objectives of three or more and ideally, all the – independent parties in the network’’.

Logistics management defined by the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP) as a part of supply chain management that plans, implements, and controls the efficient, effective forward and reverses flow and storage of goods, services, and related information between the point of origin and the point of consumption in order to meet customers’ requirements. This include inbound and outbound transportation management, fleet management, warehousing, materials handling, order fulfilment, logistics network design, inventory management, supply and demand planning, and management of third party logistics services providers.

Supply Chain Vulnerability

The term supply chain vulnerability has equal importance to Variability, Velocity and Volume in the elements of the Supply Chain and evaluates the supply chain based on the acceptance level of disaster logistics steps, which are planning, detection, mitigation, response and recovery.A different school divide the supply chain sources of risk into internal and external factors. Internal risk arises from the activities running within the supply chain. On the other hand, external risks are usually the outcome of interaction between the supply chain and its environment. For instance, terrorist attacks, natural disasters etc. These sources of risk can influence the supply chain and make it more vulnerable. The worst situation can happen when both internal and external sources cause the disruption simultaneously.

The Supply Chain Resilience has been always one of the main concerns of managers, since the ability of an enterprise to confront unexpected events is the matter of its own success or failure.

The term resilience essentially pertains to the ability of a system to return to its original state or move to new, more desirable state after being disturbed or degraded due to a variety of reasons. Various pillars on which a resilient supply chain rests can be depicted as under :-

Figure 2

Humanitarian Logistics & Relief Supply Chain

Humanitarian logistics is supposed to assist those people who are influenced by the disasters. These may be provided to those who are in much need of this help .This must be given based on the proportion of their needs. A series of activities or steps are needed for monitoring of the process right from the storage to the distribution. Different methods like ID cards or head counts etc. may be used to apply this method. Thomas and Kopczak, (2005) has defined Humanitarian Logistics as the process of planning, implementing and controlling the efficient, cost-effective flow and storage of goods and materials as well as related information, from the point of origin to the point of consumption for the purpose of meeting the end beneficiary’s requirements and alleviating the suffering of vulnerable people (Thomas and Kopczak, 2005).

HUMANITARIAN LOGISTICS CHARACTERISTICS

(KOVACS & SPENS, 2007)

Table 1

Proper response to the humanitarian needs in case of disasters is considered to be mitigation and satisfying the initial and vital needs of the survivors. It must be done in the

Figure 1

Resilience in Humanitarian Aids Logistics

During relief operations in disasters, the performance of the humanitarian aids supply chain is affected due to the lack of coordination approaches and less joint and holistic supply chain strategies between operation management and human actors. The huge number of involved governmental agencies, nongovernmental organizations, UN faculties, international institutes, manufacturers and 3rd party logistics providers which are various in the nature, size, abilities, specialties and performances, demands for coordination, cooperation and well management of the humanitarian roles in case of natural disasters. A collective strategy may be able to improve the performance of humanitarian supply chains during disasters.

   Supply Chain Vulnerability and Resilience

It is important to find those factors that make a system more vulnerable to disruptions. Removing those factors or limiting them will increase the supply chain resilience, which means the ability of those chains to recover to their initial or even better state in case a disruption will happen.

Creating Supply Chain Resilience

Essentially, there are four main principals, which must be followed while making a resilient supply chain –

1. Built-in futures make the supply chain more capable of recovering itself to the previous stage in case any unpleasant event happens.

    2. There is a necessity of collaborative efforts in order to identify the risk sources. By finding the risk sources, removing those sources or preparedness for their consequences will be possible.

3.  Agility is vital for the supply chain resiliency. The more a supply chain is capable of quickly reacting to unexpected events, the more resilient it becomes.

4. It is important to widen our perspective and not to limit the possible sources of the risk just within the supply chain. It‟s crucial to consider other supply chain or networks to be of high potential to impose the risk into our network.

Mapping the Supply Chain

To realize weaknesses of the supply chain, it is crucial to picture it flawlessly. By detecting the bottlenecks and limitations there are some characteristics that make strains for the supply chain e.g. Long lead-times, monopoly in supply, lack of visibility, and association of a link or node to high level of risk etc. Single sourcing approach in supply can reduce the costs and facilitate the quality control procedure, however single sourcing increases the vulnerability of supply chain. All the entities that are moving toward resiliency must take this fact into consideration that a balance between cost orientation and resiliency tendency must exist.

Supply chain strategy must not limit the entities within the chain. Pure cost oriented supply chains may look successful from the financial perspective, but in case of any interruption, the consequences of that unexpected event can be severe and may impose vast amount of costs to them.

Creating Risk Management Culture

Risk management culture must be created in the wider perspective and through the whole network. Supply chain risk assessment must be also done to realize the vulnerable nodes and links. Finally, a risk management time must exist within the business to frequently update the supply chain risk information.The presented factors must be prioritized as crucial in designing or improving the supply chains, because in case of natural or man-made disasters, a vulnerable supply chain can intensify the consequences of the disaster and increase the risk of losing more human lives.

These trends are Quickly growing world population and the larger concentration of assets in high risk areas combines to create an environment in which natural disasters are increasing in frequency and intensity.The main challenge after disaster happening is; how to get the right amount of resources to the place of disaster to cover the initial needs of survivors in less amount of time which is the task of relief supply chain management team.

Coordination and Decision Issues

The role and responsibility of the government (at the national/state/provincial/local/tribal levels) must be recognized in the event of a major international disaster. Even when permission is granted, there are still some occasional conflicts of authority and delays in decision making, due to distance, communication impediments or misunderstanding.

Supply Chain Structure

In each particular disaster, some special organizations are involved based on severity, location, the nature of the disaster, availability of potential participants, anticipated needs and prescribed procedures. Thus the relief group‟s membership could change from one disaster to another, adding an extra dimension of complication to the coordination.

Self-Initiated Responders

After any disaster occurrence, supply chain management team receives request from a number of uninvited, unexpected and inexperienced individuals, groups or even NGOs who come up to the stage following a disaster. While they can be of immense help at the time of dire need, they may also create numerous problems:-

They compete for coordination, communication, logistics, and sustenance capacity like everyone else.

They often need more coordination effort since they did not participate in any prior planning efforts.

They often disrupt the efforts of others.

Secondary Relief Chain Activities

Focusing on reconstruction and restoration of the infrastructures towards normalcy is themain request of the disaster’s survivals after the urgency of the initial disaster response andthe creation of conditions in which the affected population is safe.The implication of this is that the restoration phase needs to be explicitly considered duringpre-planning and execution of the response to the disaster. Explicitly taking into account therestoration phase during early planning could avoid some of the problems that arise after adisaster.Apart from managerial difficulties, creating an effective and efficient humanitarian aids logistics is sentenced to be challenging and prone to suffering from different barriers which are explained below:-

Humanitarian Logistics and Relief Supply Chain Steps

Considering the number of organizations, workers and relief items arriving on the ground zero , there are few important steps which are essentially required during the disaster response under the humanitarian logistics and supply chain umbrella. They are as under :-

    Figure 1

Recourse Mobilization (Financial & Human Resources)

Once the response operation is underway after any disaster, various organizations allocate available resources and begin requesting additional resources via the appeals process. Human resources must be mobilized in the form of professional humanitarian workers, volunteers, firemen, ambulance workers, police or military staff. Resources may also undergo different levels of training, skills, and affiliation. Training may varies across and within the organization.

Relief Supply Chain Umbrella

Coordination, collaboration and communication known as Relief Supply Chain Umbrella are vital among organizations taking part in the response operations because of the various goals and objectives that may include management of transportation, supply chain techniques for humanitarian logistics, education and training, resource management, partnership with military, logistics information system (LIS), assessment of damage. Despite seemingly conflicting mandates, it is vital that those involved in the humanitarian operation find a way to collaborate in order to provide relief in a complimentary and efficient way. Without this, efforts are certain to be duplicated in some areas while entirely omitted in others. This would increase the sense of abandonment in certain sections of the affected population and hamper the overall relief operation.

Methods of Data Collection

There are different ways for collecting data and information. The most appropriate and common way for data gathering in research methods are, surveys and literature reviews, talking with people and personal interviews, surveys via mail and phone, E-mail and internet surveys. Although it is a bit hard to get update information by this way but, it is one of the cheapest ways for information gathering. Web search and internet based information are the fastest ways for collecting data.In this study, a literature review for better understanding of humanitarian logistics and supply chain definitions and terms, supply chain vulnerability and resilience and an empirical data gathering through a case study review have been done to address the research questions of the thesis with focus on prevailing practices.

Strategies of Information Gathering

Primary or secondary information are two different types of data and information which can be gathered. Primary type of information is gathered by the researcher or investigator himself, usually through face to face or personal interviews, library research and surveys, internet and web based surveys or questionnaires. The secondary source is one which has already been collected, existed and documented by other scientists and researchers and are available in different sources.

By attention to the main parameters of the primary information gathering strategy and regarding to our time banding and economical limitations, investigation directly at the place of disasters and also face to face interview with the members of the relief logistics and supply chain for better data collecting and information gathering were impossible.To be able to assemble a strong theoretical and experimental bases for further researches and applications, a collection of secondary information and data is made from literature review of internet and web based humanitarian logistics and supply chain books/journals and such open source is utilized.

Qualitative and Quantitative Methods

In general, qualitative research creates pure, exhaustive and applicable data and information that contribute to in-depth understanding of the context.Qualitative research is based on gathering, analyzing, and understanding data and information through observing what others do and say.Quantitative research creates reliable population based and generalizable data and information which are well suited to establishing cause-and-effect affairs. Quantitative research method is a kind of research involves the use of organized questions where the response options are predictable and a large number of respondents are involved.A Quantitative and Qualitative Methods of literature review in parallel with Deductive Research Approach on both published articles and reviewed case studies conducted to government and media documents and surveys are the bases to make the theoretical framework in this research. Focus on the existing views and perspectives to develop the research through the relationship between human variables and abilities associated with organizational and operational variables within the supply chain resilience sounds crucial.To improve the conceptual model, we strongly believe that, details and points regarding humanitarian aids in relief chain resilience will obtained through some off-site and on-site interviews which should be attended to the research purpose.

Case Study Method

Case study research method is an empirical qualitative method of research which usually been used to extend the complexities and issues of the previous experiences and researches. With exact and detailed examining and investigating of the few number on rules, conditions, events, accidents, assumptions and their relation by the researchers and scientists, case study research method highlight the results of various contextual analysis of the above factors in real- life situations. This can be defined as an empirical inquiry that investigates a contemporary phenomenon within its real-life context; when the boundaries between phenomenon and context are not clearly evident and in which multiple sources of evidence are used.Although some scientists and researchers believe that validity and reliability of the research is in place of doubt by the way, majority trust it and continue to use the case study research method with success in carefully planned and crafted studies of real-life situations, issues, and problems.

Through the establishing of planned and targeted “how”, “why” and “what” forming questions, the framework and focusing points of the case study and research complexity and also, object and purpose of it, will be clear during the study.These questions are usually about the conditions, situations, difficulties, faced problems and the weaknesses of the entire achievements in previous studies. Because of the intricately political, social, historical, geographical and economic effects of the research and study situation, and because of the limited number of events, conditions and relations on the way of an entire case study research, the researchers investigate and follow up the objects and purpose of the researches by the variety method of the information review and data gathering by availability of the sources.

Reliability

Reliability is the extent to which a studys operations can be repeated, with the same results. Reliability also involves the accuracy of the chosen research. In fact, the reliability of a study is acceptable ifanother researcher can conduct the same research and carry out the same results. Researchers should provide the same result at different times if the conditions are identical.Reliability through the case study research method refers to the stability, accuracy, and precision of measurement. Exemplary case study design ensures that the procedures used are well documented and can be repeated with the same results over and over again.This research was performed in both theoretical and practical perspectives and we tried to use more scientific literatures also more case studies, therefore an acceptable level of reliability could be verified.Evidently, statistically and quantitative method of research are not quite suitable for this kind of case study research, as reviewing the literatures and documented cases related to humanitarian logistics and relief supply chain. This research also invites other students of logistics and supply chain to make further work and investigation on different perspectives of humanitarian logistics, humanitarian supply chain, relief supply chain and theirs‟ improvements (Soy, 1997).

References

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