Content area
Full Text
Supply Chains in Times of Crisis: An Examination of Human and Humanitarian Supply Issues
Edited by Dr R. Glenn Richey Jr
1 Introduction
Logistics research and practice has been very much focused on its application in a business context. A different application area of logistics is in the context of humanitarian aid, which has been only recently embraced by research. Whilst there were only a handful of articles on humanitarian logistics up till 2005 (as the two literature reviews by [26] Kovács and Spens, 2007 and 2008 would indicate - though more can be found from an operations research perspective, [2] Altay and Green, 2006). In these last two years, humanitarian logistics was included as special tracks of the INFORMS; POMS, LRN and NOFOMA conferences, and debated in many other platforms. This same period also saw the formation of a number of research groups dedicated to the topic.
Based on a workshop with humanitarian organizations, [46] Thomas and Mizushima (2005, p. 60) defined humanitarian logistics as "the process of planning, implementing and controlling the efficient, cost-effective flow and storage of goods and materials, as well as related information, from point of origin to point of consumption for the purpose of meeting the end beneficiary's requirements". Except for its focus on the end beneficiary, this definition is largely comparable to any definition of business logistics. [4] Balcik and Beamon (2008, p. 102) summarize crucial characteristics of humanitarian logistics (as different from business logistics) to consist of the:
- unpredictability of demand, in terms of timing, location, type, and size;
- suddenness of the occurrence of demand in large amounts but with short lead times for a wide variety of supplies;
- high stakes associated with the timeliness of deliveries; and
- lack of resources in terms of supply, people, technology, transportation capacity, and money.
There are several reasons why humanitarian logistics is of interest to researchers. First, in its broader context, humanitarian supply chains have been argued to be most agile ([35] Oloruntoba and Gray, 2006). Thus, their core competence is to deal with different types of disasters, they are very responsive when it comes to disruptions. Second, supply chain risk management literature includes the question of disruptions due to natural disasters and terrorist attacks...