Research Directions in Information Systems for Humanitarian Logistics

This article systematically reviews the literature on using IT (Information Technology) in humanitarian logistics focusing on disaster relief operations. We first discuss problems in humanitarian relief logistics. We then identify the stage and disaster type for each article as well as the article’s research methodology and research contribution. Finally, we identify potential future research directions

مدل¬سازی تعیین مسیر بهینۀ دسترسی به مناطق زلزله‌زده (مطالعۀ موردی: منطقۀ بهمنی بوشهر)

مقدمه: با افزایش جمعیت شهری و به‌تناسب آن افزایش ترافیک معابر، یکی از مهم‌ترین مسائل یافتن راه‌حلی برای کم‌کردن زمان امدادرسانی درون‌شهری است. ازآنجاکه زمان، در پاسخگویی به بحران بسیار حائز اهیمت است، مسیریابی تیم­های ارزیابی به‌عنوان یک مسئله مطرح‌شده است. بررسی ادبیات موضوعی نشان می­دهد، پژوهش‌های اندکی در داخل کشور به مبحث مدل‌سازی ریاضی در مدیریت بحران پرداخته‌اند. هدف این تحقیق، یافتن کوتاه‌ترین مسیر ممکن بین تمام نقاط اصلی یک منطقۀ آسیب‌دیده برای تیم ارزیابی خسارات است، به‌طوری‌که تیم ارزیابی، همۀ نقاط اصلی یک منطقه را فقط یک‌بار بازدید و درنهایت به نقطه مبدأ بازگردد. روش­: در این پژوهش با استفاده از مدل­های تحقیق در عملیات برای مسیریابی تیم‌های ارزیابی خسارات زلزله‌، منطقۀ بهمنی شهر بوشهر به‌عنوان نمونه انتخاب شد. در این ناحیه، میدان­ها، چهارراه‌ها، سه­راه­ها و همچنین نقاط پرجمعیت، به‌عنوان نقاط اصلی (جمعاً نوزده گره) انتخاب شدند. یک گره به‌عنوان ایستگاه، در خارج از ناحیه و بقیه گره­ها به‌عنوان نقاط حادثه‌دیده در نظر گرفته‌ شد. یافته­ها: مسئله مسیریابی تیم­های ارزیابی خسارات با استفاده از نرم‌افزار لینگو با 18 گره و 28 مسیر موجود بین این گره­ها کدنویسی و کوتاه­ترین مسیر دستیابی به همه گره­ها مشخص شد. نتیجه­گیری: با توجه به یافته‌ها می‌توان گفت که این تحقیق راهنمای مؤثری برای مدیریت بحران استان به شمار می­آید، زیرا با مشخص‌شدن کوتاه‌ترین مسیر، امدادرسانی سریع­تر و درنتیجه تلفات جانی کاهش می­یابد

The Effects of a Disaster’s Onset on the Humanitarian Aid Supply Chain

Through the development of an illustrative model, this conceptual paper argues that the relative timeframe of the onset of a disaster – whether slow or sudden - is related to the form of the supply chain response of the humanitarian aid organization. Further, a proposed method for researching the interrelationship between the nature of a disaster and how it affects the formulation of the humanitarian aid supply chain is offered. Several contributing characteristics of humanitarian aid supply chains are identified and described within the context of the model. Finally, several potential avenues for future research are described including the efficiencies that may be realized from prepartnering among humanitarian aid organizations and suppliers. The ultimate goal of this research is to aid humanitarian aid organizations in fully realizing their goals through better understanding and administration of their supply chains

Improving Volunteer Productivity and Retention during Humanitarian Relief Efforts

In the aftermath of a disaster, humanitarian organizations quickly assemble a workforce that can immediately serve a community's needs. However, these needs change over time, and the volunteer base (and their skill sets) also changes over time. In this paper, a mathematical programming model is formulated to solve a volunteer assignment problem in which beneficiaries' needs are addressed based on how many volunteers are assigned to each of the levels of needs. In addition, we also examine the changes in these volunteer assignments based on several key cost parameters, need likelihood scenarios, and volunteer training opportunities. Under various demand scenarios, the optimum decision is to begin training some unskilled volunteers early in the response period even when the short-term, unskilled task demands are still high, in preparation for the more skilled, long-term task demands that are yet to come. Humanitarian relief organization managers who generally feel as though a peak of long-term/skilled volunteer task demands will come at some point during the disaster response should strongly consider allowing volunteer training assignments

Effective medical surplus recovery

We analyze not-for-profit Medical Surplus Recovery Organizations (MSROs) that manage the recovery of surplus (unused or donated) medical products to fulfill the needs of underserved healthcare facilities in the developing world. Our work is inspired by an award-winning North American non-governmental organization (NGO) that matches the uncertain supply of medical surplus with the receiving parties’ needs. In particular, this NGO adopts a recipient-driven resource allocation model, which grants recipients access to an inventory database, and each recipient selects products of limited availability to fill a container based on its preferences. We first develop a game theoretic model to investigate the effectiveness of this approach. This analysis suggests that the recipient-driven model may induce competition among recipients and lead to a loss in value provision through premature orders. Further, contrary to the common wisdom from traditional supply chains, full inventory visibility in our setting may accelerate premature orders and lead to loss of effectiveness. Accordingly, we identify operational mechanisms to help MSROs deal with this problem. These are: (i) appropriately selecting container capacities while limiting the inventory availability visible to recipients and increasing the acquisition volumes of supplies, (ii) eliminating recipient competition through exclusive single-recipient access to MSRO inventory, and (iii) focusing on learning recipient needs as opposed to providing them with supply information, and switching to a provider-driven resource allocation model. We use real data from the NGO by which the study was inspired and show that the proposed improvements can substantially increase the value provided to recipients

A Modified Balcik Last Mile Distribution Model for Relief Operations Using Open Road Networks

The last mile in disaster relief distribution chain is the delivery of goods from a central warehouse to the evacuation centers assigned for a given area. Its effectiveness relies on the proper allocation of each kind of relief good amongst the demand areas on a given frequency. Because these operations involve a limited supply of relief goods, vehicles, and time, it is important to optimize these operations to satisfy as much demand as possible. The study aims to create a linear programming model which provides a set of recommendations on how the current disaster relief supply chain may be carried out, specifically on how distribution operations allocate supplies among demand nodes as well as the routes taken in a day. The areas visited per day would depend on the capacity of the vehicle fleet as well as on the routes that can be used. This linear programming model will use Balcik’s last mile distribution model, while modifying it for the relief operations in the Philippines. The model minimizes routing costs as well as penalty costs for unsatisfied demands. Map data is used for determining routes and historical data from previous disasters are used to determine the supply and demand for relief goods while providing a benchmark for results. The model produces recommendations for (1) Demand node schedule, (2) Best route for schedule, (3) Relief good allocation, and (4) Operational costs. It also provides the computational backbone for relief distribution decisions in the Philippines, allowing for more optimal operations in the future

A Multi-Criteria Vertical Coordination Framework for a Reliable Aid Distribution

Purpose: This study proposes a methodology that translates multiple humanitarian supply chain stakeholders’ preferences from qualitative to quantitative values, enabling these preferences to be integrated into optimization models to ensure their balanced and simultaneous implementation during the decision-making process. Design/methodology/approach: An extensive literature review is used to justify the importance of developing a strategy that minimizes the impact of a lack of coordination on humanitarian logistics decisions. A methodology for a multi-criteria framework is presented that allows humanitarian stakeholders’ interests to be integrated into the humanitarian decisionmaking process. Findings: The findings suggest that integrating stakeholders’ interests into the humanitarian decision-making process will improve its reliability. Research limitations/implications: To further validate the weights of each stakeholder’s interests obtained from the literature review requires interviews with the corresponding organizations. However, the literature review supports the statements in this paper. Practical implications: The cost of a lack of coordination between stakeholders in humanitarian logistics has been increasing during the last decade. These coordination costs can be minimized if humanitarian logistics’ decision-makers measure and simultaneously consider multiple stakeholders’ preferences. Social implications: When stakeholders’ goals are aligned, the humanitarian logistics response becomes more efficient, increasing the quality of delivered aid and providing timely assistance to the affected population in order to minimize their suffering. Originality/value: This study provides a methodology that translates humanitarian supply chain stakeholders’ interests into quantitative values, enabling them to be integrated into mathematical models to ensure relief distribution based on the stakeholders’ preferences.Peer Reviewe

An empirical analysis of humanitarian warehouse locations

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to empirically verify characteristics of current warehouse locations of humanitarian organizations (based on public information) and to relate those to the model developed by Richardson et al. (2016). Design/methodology/approach: This paper is based on desk research. Public data such as (annual) reports and databases are used to empirically verify location characteristics. Findings: A significant portion of our sample co-locates their products at UNHRD premises. This indicates that organizations prefer to cluster warehouse activities, particularly when there is no fee involved for using the warehouse (as is the case in the UNHRD network). We find that the characteristics of the current warehouse locations are aligned with literature on location selection factors. Current location can be characterized by infrastructure characteristics (in particular closeness to airport and safety) and by low occurrence of disasters. Other factors for which we did not find evidence for were labor quality and availability as well as political environment. Research limitations/implications: We have used a limited sample of warehouses. We also focused our research on the countries where two or more organizations have their warehouses located. We did not account for warehouse sizes or product stored in our analysis. Practical implications: The geographic map of the current warehouses together with the quantified location factors provides an overview of current warehouse locations. Originality/value: We empirically verify characteristics of warehouse locations of humanitarian organizations. This differs from other studies that do not provide an empirically grounded perspective

Les festivals musicaux : des organisations temporaires pulsatoires ? Le cas du festival du Bout du Monde

National audienceLes festivals de musiques jouent un rôle important dans l'animation des territoires et leur apportent des retombées économiques non négligeables. Dès lors, la pérennisation de ces événements constitue un enjeu tant pour les organisateurs que pour les sites qui les accueillent. Dans cette optique, il est important de mieux comprendre ces organisations très particulières. Les festivals musicaux sont des structures paradoxales. Ils sont à la fois temporaires et durables. Inclus dans un projet de recherche qui porte sur la pérennisation des activités de production de services événementiels, cette communication propose de qualifier les festivals musicaux d'Organisations Temporaires Pulsatoires (OTP). Le fonctionnement de ces "organisations-événements" est étudié au travers d'une revue de littérature focalisée sur les structures en réseau et sur les organisations temporaires. Après avoir présenté une typologie d'organisations temporaires, un raisonnement par analogie permet d'établir un parallèle entre les structures déployées entre autres dans le cadre des jeux olympiques et celles des festivals musicaux. Un cycle organisationnel en quatre étapes est mis en lumière et s'articule autour de l'oscillation entre deux états de la structure permettant d'identifier deux phases transitoires. L'étude du cas du festival du Bout du Monde de Crozon (29) met en évidence une convergence entre les éléments théoriques et ceux issus du terrain. Elle permet d'apporter des éléments de réponses sur le caractère pulsatoire de l'organisation ainsi que sur les mécanismes qui régissent ces pulsations. Les données empiriques soulignent aussi le rôle central qu'occupe la logistique dans la phase transitoire entre un état dormant et un état activé de l'OTP qui apparait comme l'un des principaux facteurs de réussite d'un festival. Si la recherche permet de mieux comprendre le fonctionnement des festivals musicaux et met en lumières les mécanismes qui semblent améliorer leur efficacité et garantir leur pérennité, les résultats obtenus mériteront d'être approfondis par d'autres études de cas complémentaires