Humanitarian logistics: the role of logistics service providers

Vega, Diego; Roussat, Christine

doi:10.1108/ijpdlm-12-2014-0309

Cited by 73 publications

(144 citation statements)

References 42 publications

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“…In this paper, we focus on reducing and transferring strategies for managing in-country transportation risks. We limit our study scope to the first two categories of LSPs due to their common usage in recent humanitarian response operations [24].…”

Section: Risk Management and Humanitarian Contextsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Managing in-country transportation risks in humanitarian supply chains by logistics service providers: Insights from the 2015 Nepal earthquake

Baharmand

Comes

Lauras

2017

International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction

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This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication. As a service to our customers we are providing this early version of the manuscript. The manuscript will undergo copyediting, typesetting, and review of the resulting galley proof before it is published in its final citable form. Please note that during the production process errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain. AbstractHumanitarian supply chains (HSCs) play a central role in effective and efficient disaster relief operations. Transportation has a critical share in HSCs and managing its risks helps to avoid further disruptions in relief operations. However, there is no common approach to or culture of risk management that its applicability has been studied through recent cases. This paper incorporates an empirical research design and makes a threefold contribution: first it identifies in-country transportation risks during Nepal response. Second, we evaluate afore identified risks through an expert driven risk assessment grid. Third, we use our field data to study how some humanitarian organizations in Nepal response used logistics service providers for managing those moderate-and high-level risks.In this paper, we use both qualitative and quantitative methods. Our qualitative analysis reveals that some of the most important in-country transportation risks were delivery delays; market fluctuations; insufficient capacity; loss of cargo; cargo decay; unreliable information; and ethical concerns. Our quantitative work shows that while participants categorized the first three risks as high-level risks, the rest were ranked as moderate-level. More investigation in our field data indicates that using logistics service providers (LSPs) helped humanitarians significantly to manage afore in-country transportation risks during Nepal response. It also improved overall HSC performance with respect to flexibility, effectiveness, efficiency, and responsiveness. While this finding empirically confirms the "tools" role of LSPs for managing in-country transportation risks in response, it implies another role for LSPs; "contributors" to performance improvements.

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Section: Risk Management and Humanitarian Contextsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In HSC literature, although very few studies can be found, LSPs has been studied within three roles in relief operations: as "members", "actors", or "tools" [24]. As "members", LSPs share their resources with HOs, transfer their knowledge, and expand their partners` network.…”

Section: Logistics Service Providers and Their Roles In Disaster Reliefmentioning

confidence: 99%

Managing in-country transportation risks in humanitarian supply chains by logistics service providers: Insights from the 2015 Nepal earthquake

Baharmand

Comes

Lauras

2017

International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction

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“…However, organizations are increasingly developing partnerships with suppliers (we found reference to this trend among four of the reviewed organizations) and engaging in cooperative purchasing (Pazirandeh and Herlin, 2014;Pazirandeh and Norrman, 2014). There is great potential for research to document such attempts, their challenges, and effects for logistics preparedness and 2015; Vega and Roussat, 2015) that could be used as basis for empirical studies. Vega and Roussat (2015) suggested future research on the various roles played by logistics service providers in humanitarian logistics and their effect on performance.…”

Section: A Proposed Research Agendamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…There is great potential for research to document such attempts, their challenges, and effects for logistics preparedness and 2015; Vega and Roussat, 2015) that could be used as basis for empirical studies. Vega and Roussat (2015) suggested future research on the various roles played by logistics service providers in humanitarian logistics and their effect on performance. Bealt et al (2016) concluded that there is a need to focus more on how relationships can influence ability for better preparedness and environmentally sound operations.…”

Section: A Proposed Research Agendamentioning

confidence: 99%

Defining logistics preparedness: a framework and research agenda

Jahre

Pazirandeh

Wassenhove

2016

JHLSCM

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Purpose of this paperThis paper aims to contribute to a more complete understanding of logistics preparedness. By comparing research in preparedness and logistics with findings from empirical analysis of secondary data, we develop a definition of and framework for logistics preparedness, along with suggestions for a future research agenda. Design/methodology/approachWe link the way in which humanitarian organizations define and aim to achieve logistics preparedness with extant academic research. We critically analyze public data from 13 organizations that are active in disaster relief and review papers on logistics preparedness and humanitarian logistics. FindingsWe found that, despite the increased attention, there is no unified understanding across organizations about what constitutes logistics preparedness and how it can contribute to improvements in operations. Based on our review of the academic literature, we found the same is true for humanitarian logistics research. The lack of a common understanding has resulted in low visibility of efforts and lack of knowledge on logistics preparedness. Research limitations/implicationsBased on research and practice, we suggest a definition of and framework for logistics preparedness with related suggestions for future studies. Practical implications (if applicable)Findings can help the humanitarian community gain a better understanding of their efforts related to developing logistics preparedness and provide a better basis for communicating the need for, and results from, funding in preparedness. Societal implicationsResults can support improvements in humanitarian supply chains, thereby providing affected people with rapid, cost-efficient, and better-adapted responses. What is original/value of paperOur findings contribute to humanitarian logistics literature, firstly by identifying issues related to the lack of a common definition. Secondly, we extend the understanding of what constitutes logistics preparedness by proposing an operationalized framework and definition. Finally, we add to the literature by discussing what future topics and types of research may be required.

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“…-Having access to a wide range of fleets. Other HOs can enable such access by establishing partnerships with logistics service providers (LSPs) that provide different fleet types (Vega and Roussat 2015;Baharmand et al 2017). -The number of UNWFPs' staging areas (SAs) and their geographical distribution.…”

Section: Improving the Flexibilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Defining and measuring the network flexibility of humanitarian supply chains: insights from the 2015 Nepal earthquake

Baharmand

Lauras

2017

Ann Oper Res

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The efficient and effective response to disasters critically depends on humanitarian supply chains (HSCs). HSCs need to be flexible to adapt to uncertainties in needs, infrastructure conditions, and behavior of other organizations. The concept of 'network flexibility' is, however, not clearly defined. The lack of an unanimous definition has led to a lack of consistent understanding and comparisons. This paper makes a threefold contribution: first, it defines the concept of network flexibility for HSC in the context of sudden onset disasters. Second, it proposes a framework to measure network flexibility in HSCs. Third, we apply our framework to the 2015 Nepal earthquake case and provide evidence-based insights regarding how humanitarian organizations can improve network flexibility in HSCs. Our analyses for Nepal case show that delivery, IT support, and fleet criteria have the most influence on flexibility. Also, the application of our framework on the downstream network of nine humanitarian organizations shows low levels of network flexibility in all but one. This finding explains why several disruptions happened in relief distributions during the Nepal response.

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Humanitarian logistics: the role of logistics service providers

Cited by 73 publications

References 42 publications

Managing in-country transportation risks in humanitarian supply chains by logistics service providers: Insights from the 2015 Nepal earthquake

Managing in-country transportation risks in humanitarian supply chains by logistics service providers: Insights from the 2015 Nepal earthquake

Defining logistics preparedness: a framework and research agenda

Defining and measuring the network flexibility of humanitarian supply chains: insights from the 2015 Nepal earthquake

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