Conceptual Study of Humanitarian Supply Chains in Indian Context

Devendra K. Yadav Research Scholar

Indian Institute of Technology Bhubaneswar

Humanitarian logistics deals with•Earthquakes,

•Tsunamis,

•Hurricanes,

• Epidemics,

•Droughts,

•Famines,

• Terrorist Attacks,

• War Situations

• and a combination of several disasters which may occur simultaneously. (Kovács and Spens, 2009)

Humanitarian Logistics

Communication

Coordination

Collaboration

A humanitarian relief operation during a disaster, works under the blend of communication, collaboration and coordination.

(Van Wassenhove et al., 2009)

Natural disasters in India: causes• Adverse geographic

condition • Topographic features, • Environmental

degradation,

• Population explosion,

• Rapid urbanization, • Industrial development,

• Flawed development practicesIndia Disaster Report 2011, 2012

Objective of this paper

To identify the current practices of humanitarian logistics

To identify the challenges of humanitarian in Indian context

To discuss case studies in support of selected challenges

Literature survey Authors Contributions

Beamon and Balcik (2008)

Performance measurement in humanitarian logistics

Kovacs and Spens (2007) Role of Humanitarian logistics in disaster relief

Kovacs and Spens (2009) Challenges of humanitarian logistics

Van Wassenhove (2006) Humanitarian aid logistics

Thomas and Copczak (2005)

Role of Humanitarian logistics training

Literature survey Authors Contributions

Howden M. (2009) Role of information System in humanitarian logistics

Cozzolino et al. (2012)

Agile and lean principle in Humanitarian supply chain

Kunz N. (2012) Meta Analysis(Literature review) of humanitarian logistics research

Sinha A.K. (2001) Report on Gujarat EarthquakeKumar et al. (2012) India Disaster Report 2011Costa et al. (2012) Role of infrastructure in logistics

activities

Challenges 1. Infrastructure

• The disasters affect the infrastructure of transport, communications and logistical support. (Costa et al., 2012)

• Infrastructure repair and construction of hospitals and shelters are treated as critical activities.

(Kovács and Spens, 2009)

Challenges

2. Coordination among various players

(Kovács and Spens, 2007)

Humanitarian reliefnetwork

Logistics providers

International organizations

Local agencies

Military

Governments

NGOs

Challenges

3. Communication and information system

• Lack of reliable information during Gujarat’s earthquake in 2001. (Van Wassenhove, 2006)

• Communication failure was noted during Tsunami 2004, Hurricane Katrina 2005, and Tsunamis in the islands of Samoa in 2009 .

(Haddow et al., 2011)

Challenges4. Strategic planning

• Lack of available trained and experienced humanitarians.

(Fritz Institute, 2005)

• Lack of plan for permanent flood control (Disaster Report 2011,

2012)

• Failure of forecasts and warning systems (SANDRP, 2013)

Challenges

5. Technology

• Lack of tracking and tracing technology in the humanitarian sector.

• Logistics and supply chain management is still manual.

(Thomas and Kopczak, 2005)

Challenges

6. Performance measure system

• No Key Performance Indicators(KPI’s) and targets for periodic evaluation. (Beamon and Balcik, 2008)

• Lack of Development of standards, procedures and technical specifications for supplies. (Costa et al., 2012)

Gujarat Earthquake,2001

Uttarakhand flood and land-sliding, 2013

Case studies

1.Gujarat earthquake January 2001

• Earthquake on 26 January 2001, killed over 20,000 people.

• Professionally trained search and rescue team were not available.

• No centralized resource inventory.

• Geo-technical and structural failures. (Sinha, A. K., 2001)

2. Tsunami December 26, 2004,

• Lack of regional tsunami warning capabilities. (Bullock et al., 2011)

• More than 2,27,000 people killed and 1.5 million affected

(Thomas and Fritz,2006)

Case studies

3. Odisha flood 2011• Affected more than 3.5 million populations belongs to

various districts in Odisha a state of India. • Lack of initiation to plan for permanent flood control or long

term measures to tackle the flood and reduce its impact.

(India Disaster Report 2011, 2012)

• .

4. Uttarakhand flood and landslides 2013

• A flash flood and landslides in Uttarakhand state during mid June 2013, death of more than 580 people and more than 5000 people are missing till mid august 2013. (National Disaster Management India,2013)

• Adequate technology and lack of coordination. (Employment News, July 2013)

Future Work

• Modeling of selected challenges through multi criteria decision making tools.

• Modeling and optimization of vehicle routing, inventory planning, and Demand predictions, through Genetic Algorithms, Ant Colony Optimization, and Artificial Neural Network etc.

CONCLUSION

• This paper communicates all the aspects of humanitarian logistics with the help of four case studies in Indian context.

• Disaster relief comprises about 80% logistics works (Van Wassenhove, 2006)

• Various government and non government organizations in India and worldwide are needed to continuously engaged in humanitarian activities.

THANK YOU….

References

• Balcik, B., Beamon, B. M., Krejci, C. C., Muramatsu, K. M., & Ramirez, M. (2010). “Coordination in humanitarian relief chains: Practices, challenges and opportunities”, International Journal of Production Economics, Vol. 126 No. 1, pp.22–34.

• Beamon, B. M., & Balcik, B. (2008), “Performance measurement in humanitarian relief chains”,  International Journal of Public Sector Management, Vol. 21 No.1, pp.4-25.

• Costa, S. R. A. Da, Campos, V. B. G., & Bandeira, R. A. D. M. (2012), “Supply Chains in Humanitarian Operations: Cases and Analysis”, Social and Behavioral Sciences, Vol. 54, pp.598–607.

• Fritz Institute (2005), “lessons from the Tsunami: Survey of Non-Governmental Organizations in India and Sri Lanka”, available at: http://www.fritzinstitute.org/PDFs/findings/NGOsReport.pdf, accessed on: 02 July 2013.

• K.J. Anandha Kumar, Ajinder Walia, and Shekher Chaturvedi (2012), “INDIA DISASTER REPORT 2011”, available at: http://nidm.gov.in/PDF/India%-20Disaster%20Report%202011.pdf, accessed on: 14 July 2013.

References• Kovács, G., & Spens, K. M. (2007), “Humanitarian logistics in disaster relief

operations”, International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management, Vol.37 No.2, pp.99-114.

• National Disaster Management (2013), “Flood Situation Report-2013”, available at: http://www.ndmindia.nic.in/flood2013/floods2013.htm, accessed on: 10 July 2013.

• Sinha, A. K. (2001), “The Gujarat Earthquake 2001”, Asian Disaster Reduction Center.

• Thomas, A. S., & Kopczak, L. R. (2005), “From logistics to supply chain management: the path forward in the humanitarian sector”, Fritz Institute, Vol.15, pp.1-15.

• Van Wassenhove, L. N. (2006), “Humanitarian aid logistics: supply chain management in high gear†”, Journal of the Operational Research Society, Vol. 57 No.5, pp.475–489.