On one hand, a disaster relief operation could be viewed as a supply chain operating under an extreme supply chain disruption. On the other hand, a disaster relief operation could also be viewed as a supply chain operating with extreme supply chain flexibility or extreme supply chain agility.
Humanitarian supply chains appear to be the rising star within supply chain management, and rightly so. This book matches humanitarian logistics with corporate social responsibility, and that is not only doing good but doing the good rightly.
The timely delivery of critical goods has always been a crucial element of an effective disaster response, but an effective disaster supply chain is hard to create and maintain. What are the key supply chain factors for improving disaster supply chain management?
Decentralization, pre-positioning and pooling of relief items are key success factors for dramatic improvements in humanitarian operations performance in disaster response and recovery.
Now there is a new source for knowledge on disaster management and humanitarian logistics, the Journal of Humanitarian Logistics and Supply Chain Management (JHLSCM).
Can commercial logistics’ ideas and solutions work in humanitarian supply chains? No. Why? Well, perhaps they could work, but in most cases they won’t.
Only by combining military and humanitarian supply chains, the strengths of both types of logistics can be exploited, and the extreme agility of rescue organizations can be matched with the extreme efficiency of the military.
