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

Abstract

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.

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

“…In this regard, reviewing best practices for IT support in humanitarian contexts confirms that inclusion of ICT tools in different processes including planning, controlling, tracking, and monitoring improves HSC network performance (Tchouakeu et al 2013). Similarly, using logistics service providers (LSPs) for managing fleets and other logistics activities enables better risk management and enhances relief distribution performance (Baharmand et al 2017). -Our framework can act as a prerequisite for implementing network design concepts that flexibility is among their key drivers, such as resilience and agility.…”

“…Interviewees mentioned that they have defined partnership protocols. In addition to the support that local partner flexibility can provide for other criteria, it supports the community empowerment (Baharmand et al 2017).…”

“…-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.…”

Applying the Delphi method to determine best practices for outsourcing logistics in disaster relief

“…The third group of articles explore the role of LSPs and outsourcing in humanitarian operations. Examples for this class of papers are Abidi et al (2015), Baharmand et al (2017), Cottam et al (2004), Cozzolino et al (2017), Heaslip (2013), Sánchez Gil and McNeil (2015) and Vega and Roussat (2015). The fourth group of studies are mathematical models which examine the efficiency of outsourcing (Nagurney et al, 2011;Wang et al, 2016), the tendering and selection process (Bagchi et al, 2011;Paul and Wang, 2015;Trestrail et al, 2009), and routing decisions of service providers (Huang et al, 2015).…”

Humanitarian access, interrupted: dynamic near real-time network analytics and mapping for reaching communities in disaster-affected countries

“…In the early phase of a natural disaster, response organisations rush towards the still functioning seaports and airports that serve as entry points to reach the affected areas (Holguín-Veras et al 2012). Yet destruction of road infrastructure can lead to severe delays, particularly for rural communities, such as during the Nepal earthquake of 2015, where mountain trails became impassable, and communities could only be reached by Sherpa (Kazmin 2015;Baharmand et al 2017).…”