In humanitarian relief operations (HRO), due to the excessive number of relief organizations, multiple organizational coordination is a demanding and complicated task. Considering such a problem, this paper proposes a two-phase mechanism to coordinate multiple heterogeneous relief organizations in a decentralized HRO logistics network. To address such a problem, first a bi-level mixed integer l...

The coordination problem of relief items’ distribution operations is essential in humanitarian relief chains. If the coordination is proper, it will improve the response phase to the crisis. In order to improve the coordination in humanitarian relief chains, distribution and warehousing operations of relief items were outsourced to the third-party logistics. In this paper, the procurement-distr...

Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) involved in humanitarian relief provide supplies and services to people in need. Transportation and logistics are big parts of NGO operations, as agencies transport and distribute supplies to and within the affected regions. Improving efficiency of their logistics systems has potential to significantly decrease agencies’ operational costs and expand their se...

This chapter focuses on an auction-based procurement framework for single coordinating platforms in humanitarian logistics. It first covers disaster relief operations, humanitarian logistics, and procurement in this context and illustrate many of the issues that make the management and coordination of procurement functions complex and challenging. Then the proposed framework along with the auct...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to compare performance measurement in the humanitarian relief chain with performance measurement in the commercial supply chain, develop performance metrics for the humanitarian relief chain, and present a framework that can be used as a basis for a performance measurement system in the relief sector. Design/methodology/approach – The performance measureme...

In this work we present the results of a survey on major challenges in humanitarian logistics. The survey was conducted among logistics managers of relief organizations, logistic service providers, and universities investigating in humanitarian logistics. The following issue areas were consulted: (1) Information and Technology, (2) Processes, Organization, Coordination, (3) Infrastructure, (4) ...

As the humanitarian aid sector is expanding, the need for enhancing coordination capabilities increases as well. This holds especially for the area of logistics, because humanitarian operations typically take place in unstable and risky environments, where infrastructure is poor, while staff turnover is high. The effectiveness of humanitarian logistics critically depends on the availability and...

Disasters trigger the need for relief items. The flows of relief items to the beneficiaries in the disaster area are determined by humanitarian logistics networks. The setup and operations of such networks can be supported by employing Operations Research models. Several models, based on different methodologies are available to support decision-making in the field of humanitarian logistics. Thi...

The relief organizations work in volatile environments involving a variety of actors with different skills and knowledge. The service of emergency for victims of natural disasters requires a rapid decision-making. The objective of the approach presented in this paper is to develop a Systemic Process Model (SPM) for procurement decisions in humanitarian logistics. The SPM aims to support procure...

Coordination among actors in a humanitarian relief supply chain decides whether a relief operation can be or successful or not. In humanitarian supply chains, due to the urgency and importance of the situation combined with scarce resources, actors have to coordinate and trust each other in order to achieve joint goals. This paper investigated empirically the role of swift trust as mediating va...