Characterizing Logistics Operations Within a Federal Staging Area for Hurricane Response: A Qualitative Analysis of Federal, State and Local Perspectives

A successful deployment of logistics operations following a disaster is a collective contribution of federal, state, and local entities to ascertain an efficient and effective response. This research analyzes data from interviews with disaster response logistics experts from these entities. The objective is to investigate the information sources and planning processes used in these organizations to plan vehicle routes for critical resource deliveries to impacted areas. Special attention is directed to the impacts of incomplete knowledge of infrastructure status, such as road disruptions due to debris or flooding. Supported by both qualitative and quantitative evidence, the study finds that incomplete knowledge of infrastructure status poses serious critical transportation risks such as delivery delays in disaster relief distribution. This research reveals both similarities and differences in logistical decision-making among these organization types and emphasizes the need for improved information sharing and coordination among emergency response organizations. The findings of this research are expected to guide future initiatives aimed at disaster relief routing thereby enhancing emergency response capabilities and outcomes

Pre-positioning inventory and service outsourcing of relief material supply chain

Service outsourcing is very common in a commercial supply chain, and in humanitarian relief area the transportation service is usually outsourced. To practice relief supply more effectively, it seems essential to enlarge outsourcing from shipping to more areas, and private enterprises could play a vital role. This paper examines the optimal pre-disaster order quantity of a certain relief commodity, based on a two-stage coordinated approach. Our findings show that the delay cost, shortage penalty cost, risk of supply shortage, salvage value, expected perishable rate, unit inventory cost and reactive price have significant impacts on the optimal amount of propositioned inventory. Moreover, the outsourcing strategies differ by types of relief commodities. For perishable supplies, proactive or reactive outsourcing would improve the benefits of buyer and supplier simultaneously. As for imperishable supplies, it is better to combine proactive insourcing approach and reactive outsourcing strategy. In view of some supplies whose monitoring cost is high, the insourcing approach is much better than outsourcing approach

Facility location optimization model for emergency humanitarian logistics

Since the 1950s, the number of natural and man-made disasters has increased exponentially and the facility location problem has become the preferred approach for dealing with emergency humanitarian logistical problems. To deal with this challenge, an exact algorithm and a heuristic algorithm have been combined as the main approach to solving this problem. Owing to the importance that an exact algorithm holds with regard to enhancing emergency humanitarian logistical facility location problems, this paper aims to conduct a survey on the facility location problems that are related to emergency humanitarian logistics based on both data modeling types and problem types and to examine the pre- and post-disaster situations with respect to facility location, such as the location of distribution centers, warehouses, shelters, debris removal sites and medical centers. The survey will examine the four main problems highlighted in the literature review: deterministic facility location problems, dynamic facility location problems, stochastic facility location problems, and robust facility location problems. For each problem, facility location type, data modeling type, disaster type, decisions, objectives, constraints, and solution methods will be evaluated and real-world applications and case studies will then be presented. Finally, research gaps will be identified and be addressed in further research studies to develop more effective disaster relief operations

Understanding Humanitarian Supply Chain Logistics with Systems Dynamics Modeling

Purpose – We explore the short-term humanitarian response to a natural disaster that prompts a rapid influx of relief supplies to the area affected by the disaster, aiming to understand the dynamics of systemic processes that apply to humanitarian supply chain logistics. Design/methodology/approach – We use system dynamics to simulate the disaster relief supply chain elements of humanitarian response. System dynamics is a well-established simulation method for analyzing complex social systems that include feedback. We used it because the timing and coordination of, and feedback loops among, events in humanitarian response incorporate a delay structure that can be modeled effectively using system dynamics. Findings – Of all the stocks in our model of the Humanitarian Stock Management System, the most important was the Cumulative Food distributed to disaster victims. In all of our simulation runs, victims eventually got all the food they needed, but at varying speeds (fast in the base run, slow in runs where repair of infrastructure was slow). However, the most problematic stock was the amount of Food in the Central Warehouse. In almost all the runs, that stock contained an excess of food (which is very common in such situations), resulting in waste and inefficiency. This problem was worst when the agency panicked at the outset and doubled its estimate of needed food, and when, as is often true, the agency received too many in-kind donations of food. The most interesting finding was that “managing” donations led to the best overall performance--low waste, good relief for victims. Practical implications – We offer a number of policy recommendations, including the need to avoid early bias, to repair infrastructure as quickly as possible, to develop better methods for keeping track of inventories and supplies on the way, and striking a balance between encouraging and dampening donations. Originality/value – This study focuses on understanding the short-term dynamics of the logistics of a humanitarian response, using a system dynamics approach. There have been only two other studies applying system dynamics to humanitarian assistance. One was operational and focused on long-term dynamics (often called “development,” as opposed to “response”) and the other was abstract and focused on those same longer-term dynamics. While these studies have produced meaningful insight, our study is unique in that we have applied an operational approach to a short, or “crisis response,” time horizon

Potential applications of unmanned ground and aerial vehicles to mitigate challenges of transport and logistics-related critical success factors in the humanitarian supply chain

The present decade has seen an upsurge in the research on the applications of autonomous vehicles and drones to present innovative and sustainable solutions for traditional transportation and logistical challenges. Similarly, in this study, we propose using autonomous cars and drones to resolve conventional logistics and transport challenges faced by international humanitarian organizations (IHOs) during a relief operation. We do so by identifying, shortlisting, and elaborating critical success factors or key transport and logistics challenges from the existing humanitarian literature and present a conceptual model to mitigate these challenges by integrating unmanned ground (UGVs) and aerial vehicles (UAVs) in the humanitarian supply chain. To understand how this novel idea of using UGVs and UAVs could help IHOs, we drafted three research questions, first focusing on the identification of existing challenges, second concentrating on remediation of these challenges, and the third to understand realization timeline for UGVs and UAVs. This lead to the development of a semi-structured, open-ended questionnaire to record the respondents’ perspectives on the existing challenges and their potential solutions. We gathered data form, ten interviewees, with substantial experience in the humanitarian sector from six IHOs stationed in Pakistan and Austria. In light of the feedback for the second research question, we present a conceptual model of integrating UAVs and UGVs in the relief chain. The results of the study indicate that technological advancement in mobility withholds the potential to mitigate the existing challenges faced by IHOs. However, IHOs tend to be reluctant in adapting UGVs compared to UAVs. The results also indicate that the adaptation of these technologies is subject to their technical maturity, and there are no significant differences in opinions found between the IHOs from Pakistan and Austria

Disaster Management Cycle-Based Integrated Humanitarian Supply Network Management

While logistics research recently has placed increased focus on disruptionmanagement, few studies have examined the response and recovery phases in post-disaster operations. We present a multiple-objective, integrated network optimizationmodel for making strategic decisions in the supply distribution and network restorationphases of humanitarian logistics operations. Our model provides an equity- or fairness-based solution for constrained capacity, budget, and resource problems in post-disasterlogistics management. We then generate efficient Pareto frontiers to understand the trade-off between the objectives of interest.Next, we present a goal programming-based multiple-objective integratedresponse and recovery model. The model prescribes fairness-based compromise solutionsfor user-desired goals, given limited capacity, budget, and available resources. Anexperimental study demonstrates how different decision making strategies can beformulated to understand important dimensions of decision making.Considering multiple, conflicting objectives of the model, generating Pareto-optimal front with ample, diverse solutions quickly is important for a decision maker tomake a final decision. Thus, we adapt the well-known Non-dominated Sorting GeneticAlgorithm II (NSGA-II) by integrating an evolutionary heuristic with optimization-basedtechniques called the Hybrid NSGA-II for this NP-hard problem. A Hypervolume-basedtechnique is used to assess the algorithm’s effectiveness. The Hazards U.S. Multi-Hazard(Hazus)-generated regional case studies based on earthquake scenarios are used todemonstrate the applicability of our proposed models in post-disaster operations

Streamlining humanitarian relief operations: the case of United Nations Peace Keeping Operations

This paper discusses supply chain and logistics issues that arise in the operations of the Peacekeeping base of the United Nations in Brindisi. First, a conceptual introduction of current lean-agile and risk debates in the supply chain literature is proposed, followed by a description of the operational activities of United Nations base at Brindisi. Then, the Peacekeeping operations are put in the context of the lean-agile debate, and possible logistics efficiency improvements are proposed