Conceptual Study of Humanitarian
Supply Chains in Indian Context
Devendra K. Yadav
Research Scholar
Indian Institute of Technology Bhubaneswar
Humanitarian logistics deals with
•Earthquakes,
• Terrorist Attacks,
•Tsunamis,
• War Situations
•Hurricanes,
• Epidemics,
•Droughts,
• and a combination of
several disasters which
may
occur
simultaneously.
(Kovács
•Famines,
and Spens, 2009)
Collaboration
Coordination
Communication
Humanitarian Logistics
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
• Population explosion,
• Rapid urbanization,
• Topographic features,
• Industrial development,
• Environmental
degradation,
• Flawed development
practices
India Disaster Report 2011, 2012
Objective of this paper
To identify the current practices of humanitarian
logistics
To identify the challenges of humanitarian logistics in
Indian context
Literature survey
Authors
Beamon and Balcik
(2008)
Kovacs and Spens (2007)
Van Wassenhove (2006)
Contributions
Performance measurement in
humanitarian logistics
Role of Humanitarian logistics
in disaster relief
Challenges of humanitarian
logistics
Humanitarian aid logistics
Thomas and Copczak
(2005)
Role of Humanitarian logistics
training
Kovacs and Spens (2009)
Literature survey
Authors
Howden M. (2009)
Cozzolino et al.
(2012)
Kunz N. (2012)
Sinha A.K. (2001)
Kumar et al. (2012)
Costa et al. (2012)
Contributions
Role of information System in
humanitarian logistics
Agile and lean principle in
Humanitarian supply chain
Meta Analysis(Literature review) of
humanitarian logistics research
Report on Gujarat Earthquake
India Disaster Report 2011
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
International
organizations
Logistics
providers
NGOs
Humanitarian relief
network
Local
agencies
Governments
Military
(Kovács and Spens, 2007)
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)
Challenges
4. 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)
Case studies
Gujarat Earthquake,2001
Uttarakhand flood and land-sliding, 2013
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)
3. Odisha flood 2011
• Affected more than 3.5 million populations belongs
Case
tostudies
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.