Operational excellence in humanitarian logistics and supply chain management through leagile framework: a case study from a non-mature economy

TLDR

Climate‑related disasters are increasingly frequent and intense in non‑mature economies, yet losses are largely due to inefficient humanitarian logistics and supply chains, and prior studies have mainly examined response phases or NGO coordination. The study investigates applying a novel leagile framework to improve humanitarian logistics and supply chain management in a disaster‑hit non‑mature economy and proposes a future research agenda to enhance organisational resilience. The authors employ an integrated lean‑and‑agile framework to diagnose inefficiencies and identify improvement opportunities in humanitarian logistics and supply chain management. The study recommends that public and private organisations adopt the leagile framework to increase response efficiency and performance, and it informs the UN Sendai Framework by proposing leagile principles for disaster risk reduction.

Abstract

Past few years have continuously seen an increase in intensity and frequency of climate-related disasters in non-mature economies. Most of these losses can be attributed to inefficient and ineffective management of humanitarian logistics and supply chains during the preparedness, response and reconstruction phases of disaster relief operations. Previous researches have focussed primarily either on the response phase of humanitarian logistics or on the humanitarian supply chain coordination issues mostly within international or local NGOs. We present results of a research on how a novel integrated lean and agile (leagile) framework could be employed to efficiently and effectively manage humanitarian logistics and supply chain management (HLSCM) in a local jurisdiction (i.e. public sector) of a disaster-hit region in a non-mature economy. Through this leagile framework, we identify inefficiencies and opportunities of improvement in HLSCM. Our recommendations can be used by both public and private sector organisations dealing with humanitarian emergencies to increase the efficiency of their response and performance during a disaster. Our research also informs guiding principles of UN Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction to include a leagile framework for achieving both effective and efficient responses to disasters in its priorities for action. We further suggest future research agenda in this field in order to augment the resilience of both public and private organisations.