Humanitarian Logistics (Vol 5 Issue 2)

United Nations Human Refugee Council
(UNHRC) has estimated more than 1 billion
of people are in need of humanitarian
relief and this number is ever increasing
despite the efforts from various
governments. This is further exacerbated
by improper unstructured approach to
humanitarian relief.
National Disaster Management Authority
was established in 2005 by government of
India for effective handing of disaster
response. Since its establishment NDMA
played a proactive role in mitigating,
reducing and responding to the disasters
on time on a continuous basis. For the
effective management of NDMA
government has to streamline its relief
supply chain much more effective to
reduce wastage and delays.
OPEP- Operations and Supply Chain Club of
IIM Raipur, has considered Humanitarian
logistics as the theme of this magazine
considering the relevance of the
knowledge of this issue in the present day
world. Every efforts were taken to produce
an all comprehensive and exhaustive
magazine to enhance the students
learning. In this magazine, exhaustive
information related to disaster response is
given in the form of student articles,
faculty articles, Gurumantra, and an expert
talk by Mr. Asutosh Bajpai, to provide the
insights into the issue.
The magazine includes the expert talk by
Mr. Asutosh Bajpai, VP and head of
Operations at DHL India. He talked on
various issues including how the
effectiveness of disaster response be
enhanced through effective supply chain
logistics management. Then the issue
included an article by Dr. Sumeet Gupta,
Faculty at IIM Raipur. The faculty was
written after making extensive research on
the contemporary issue- Floods in Chennai
and how social media was used for
effective disaster response.
The issue also includes student articles that
were written after extensive research. The
articles were concerned to operations at a
not- for-profit organisations and an article
titled operations beyond business that
provides insights into the operations at an
NGO or a disaster response agency like UPS
etc. The magazine also include an article by
a student of FPM related to disaster risk
management that extensively deals
effective ways of disaster risk management
arising in part due to the uncertainty
associated with the disasters. Apart from
these the issue has crossword and
‘Gurumantra’ that provides a detailed
information into what humanitarian
logistics should include and how can
humanitarian logistics be managed
effectively and how to measure the
effectiveness of humanitarian supply chain
among others.
We are thankful to Prof. B.S. Sahay,
Director IIM Raipur for his motivation and
support. We also thank Prof. Parikshit
Charan for guiding us throughout. We also
thank all our authors for taking out their
time from their busy schedule and
contributing to the magazine.
Editorial
Akanksha Rajput
Editor-in-Chief
15pgp005.akanksha@iimraipur.ac.in

Director, IIM Raipur
Director’s Message
I am happy to see Indian Institute of Management Raipur
grow from its modest beginning to its present day. In this journey,
students have played a key role through various clubs activities.
OPEP, the Operations and Supply Chain Club of the Institute has
worked hard to make their presence felt in pan IIM operations
arena. Our students have successfully launched eight issues of the
biannual e-Magazine "STRIVE".
Since 2010, the club is releasing its bi-annual E-
Magazine STRIVE with each edition of STRIVE is focusing on
Digitalization in Operations. I hope that this magazine will give
you a brief insight into the current and future trends of
development in this domain in India.
I wish OPEP a great success in their endeavor and hope
that you enjoy reading this publication.
Prof. B.S. Sahay

Content
Exclusive interview with Mr. Ashutosh Bajpai, VP &
Head of Operations, DHL Express
Gurumantra
Crossword
Operational Issues in Not for Prot Supply
Chain Setting
-By U. Sai Apoorva
Operation Management Beyond Business
-By Anirudh Wagh
Features
Regular
1
7
17
29
Student Articles
Faculty article
Social media for disaster coordination:
The case of Chennai ﬂoods
- By Dr. Sumeet Gupta
Specials
Disaster risk management
-By Namrata Sharma
11

Operational issues in Not for profit supply chain setting
U Sai Apoorva is a PGP Student at IIM Raipur. She completed her graduation in
Civil Engineering from BITS PILANI Hyderabad. She can be reached at
15pgp115.apoorva@iimraipur.ac.in"
Unlike the commercial supply chain
which aims at maximizing the profits or the
shareholders' wealth, a non-profit supply
chain works on the premise of achieving an
overall nonprofit goal. Accordingly, while
the success of the former is based on the
profitability, the success of the latter is
dependent on the achievement of that
specific nonprofit goal.
The nonprofit goals basically involve
provision of goods or services to the
beneficiaries in a nonprofit way. The
activities could range anywhere from
providing energy efficient services free of
cost to the low income families to providing
relief efforts during the aftermath of a crisis.
While this is the default goal of a nonprofit
organization, it can also be implemented by
the Government or a for-profit organization.
The environment in which a nonprofit
supply chain functions can be summarized as
above.
Although the nonprofit sector has
been growing, it is still evolving and the
challenges being confronted by this sector
are increasing. The growth in this sector
coupled with the scarcity of resources for
nonprofit, makes the challenges even more
disconcerting.
Specials
1Volume 5 issue 2 February 2016
Humanitarian LogisticsStudent ArticleStudent Article

Ÿ No metrics for performance
measurement:
For a commercial supply chain, profit is a
good metric for measuring the effectiveness
of the organization. But, on the other hand,
for a nonprofit supply chain there is no such
single measure. As such problems could arise
due to multiple and conflicting objectives.
This results in various other issues such as:
resource allocation problems, difficulty in
fair comparison of different organizations,
problems in decentralization and delegation
of decisions and performing quantitative
analyses.
Ÿ Inadequate funds:
Certain nonprofit supply chains
majorly depend on donations and grants.
While these donations are made for a variety
of reasons, there is generally no binding
contract or commitment leading to
unreliability on such funds. Also, the timing
of grant reimbursements involves
uncertainties.
On top of this, as discussed before,
there are no proper metrics for measuring the
efficiency and
effectiveness of the organizations which
could have improved the trustworthiness of
the organization for the funders.
Fig: Issues of a nonprofit supply chain
2 Operations & Supply Chain Club, IIM Raipur

Ÿ Limited resources:
Financial limitations act as major
threats to the activities of a nonprofit supply
chain. This in turn leads to resource
constraints in the form of storage, capacity or
personnel. For instance, in the case of a
nonprofit hospital setting, sta ffand beds are
particularly scarce resources.
Resources can also be unreliable as is
the case with the unstable state of roads in a
transportation setting.
Ÿ Demand greater than supply:
In most of the nonprofit supply chains,
demand exceeds supply leading to the
beneficiaries not receiving the service they
require when they need it. As such the
necessity of employing rationing arises.
However, no standard priority guidelines
exist to differentiate low-priority and high-
priority demands leading to arbitration in
many cases. In such cases, giving preference
to the most vulnerable is a common practice.
As a consequence, resource allocation
problem is a commonly faced dilemma in the
case of a nonprofit supply chain. Eg:
Nonprofit health care services for under-
developed nations.
Ÿ Poor forecast of demand:
Uncertainty in demand is a problem
for any supply chain. This problem
magnifies in case of nonprofit supply chain
due to information asymmetry between
various stakeholders involved, abrupt
changes in the demand and ultimately,
shortage of funds for monitoring data or
forecasting demand. Eg: the faulty
estimation of demand for products like flu
vaccine which are difficult to determine.
Ÿ High out-of-stock costs and losses:
Nonprofit supply chains majorly
function in situations of critical needs.
Thereby, if a stock out situation arises, the
losses and subsequent costs would be very
high.
Ÿ Lack of collaboration:
A nonprofit supply chain consists of
multiple stakeholders including the
nonprofit organization, private companies
and public entities. As such a decentralized
structure evolves with much of the supply
coming from the private sector and demand
from the nonprofit and public sector,
requiring adequate collaboration among all
entities. Moreover, a low investment in
information technology leads to poor
information flow resulting in even higher
administrative costs. This asymmetric
information also leads to problems like
transparency and accountability issues.
Suggested measures:
Some of the suggested ways and tools for
dealing with the above mentioned challenges
can be as follows:
The solution for
Ÿ No metrics for performance
measurement: Use multi-objective
optimization techniques to solve the
problem of conflicting objectives and
measure the deviations by prioritizing the
goals.
Ÿ Inadequate funds: One of the solutions
can be to ensure the efficiency of the
nonprofit organization that would in turn
improve the trustworthiness for the donor.
Develop a framework so that the
organization can be audited after the
allocation of grants which would
encourage efficiency. Also, adding an
optimization budget constraint would
help in allocating the resources
strategically.
Generating revenue: The organization
can adopt a multi-tiered structure so that
different tiers can receive different

funding leading to larger donations. Also,
by following certain requisite regulations,
the organizations can benefit from
government subsidies. Also, the supply
chain can be recast to undertake reuse,
recycling and reducing so as to
compensate for the fund scarcity. Certain
organizations can also engage in for profit
activities and use the revenue thus
generated to subsidize their nonprofit
activities and the assets are accordingly
dynamically allocated.
Reducing costs: There are certain costs
that are particular to a nonprofit supply
chain like environmental costs for an
organization working in the context of
environmentally responsible inventory
models. As such, the traditional inventory
models should be altered to include such
costs like emission costs, disposal costs
etc. Transportation and logistics costs are
one of the major cost factors in the case of
humanitarian logistics. As such,
optimization of logistics management is
crucial.
Ÿ Unreliable supply: The issue of uncertain
supply can be dealt with by assigning
failure probabilities to the network nodes
in the supply chain distribution network.
Scenario modeling can also be adopted so
as to minimize the expected regret
considering a set of worst case scenarios.
The supply risks can be shared by going
for contracts like cost-sharing contracts,
revenue sharing, buyback options,
minimum purchase conditions and other
such flexibilities.
Ÿ Limited resources: Similar to the case of
budget constraints, add resource
constraints to the decision model such as
human resource constraints, storage
capacity constraints and accordingly
minimize the costs or maximize the
coverage of demand.
Ÿ Demand greater than supply: Use a
dynamic resource allocation considering
the priority of demands and accordingly
determine the optimal distribution. The
routing must be efficiently done so as to
increase the overall accessibility for the
target population thereby increasing the
proportion of demand that is satisfied.
Ÿ Poor forecast of demand: Stochastic
dynamic programming can be employed
to use the data of one period for the next.
In order to reduce stock-outs, inventory
management strategies such as
stockpiling or pre-positioning can be used
considering up-front various factors such
as costs, investment, and response time
etc. Also risk pooling strategies can be
used where in demand from two places is
aggregated at one location so that the high
variability of demand at one place can be
compensated by the low variability at the
other place resulting in low overall
variability of demand.
Ÿ High out-of-stock costs and losses: Use
decision models where in high penalty is
assigned in case of unmet demands i.e.,
priority is given to avoid the situation of
stock-out or low stock. Also, other
alternatives can be considered when the
stock is running low, such as outsourcing
the storage or delivery of critical products,
emergency shipping etc. stockpiling and
risk pooling would be valid in this case as
well.
Ÿ Lack of collaboration: Using
sophisticated information systems would
greatly help improve the communication
process along with increasing process
transparency. Contractual membership

frameworks among the different entities
involved must be developed so that there is
better flow of communication and increased
accountability.
Example of Humanitarian Logistics:
Uttarakhand Floods, 2013
In 2013, the state of Uttarakhand faced a
massive flash flood and landslides that took
lives of about 580 people with 5000 reported
missing till August. It is generally observed
that 80 % of any disaster effort is confined to
logistics. Hence, the relief operations'
efficiency is determined by the humanitarian
logistics involved.
Rescue Operation:
Indian Army (Operation Surya Hope),
Indian Air Force (Operation Rahat), the
Border Road Organization, National
Disaster Response Force (NDRF), Indo-
Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), Red Cross
were amongst the largest organizations
involved in the rescue operations. More than
110,000 people were evacuated from the
flood affected region.
Indian Army deployed around 10,000
soldiers and 11 helicopters, the Navy deployed
45 naval divers and 43 aircrafts and 36
helicopters were deployed by IAF. 3,36,000 kg
of relief material and equipment were dropped
by flying a total of 2,137 sorties and about
18,200 victims were airlifted.
Objectives of the relief operation:
1. To setup quality protective relief
camps with edibles, water and
sanitation.
2. To provide necessary health-
care facilities.
3. To assess the damage caused in
terms of human and property
loss.
4. To keep the victims informed
about the help and assistance
measures from the government.
Figure - http://psiimpact.com/2013/06/the-daily-impact-dead-bodies-pose-
outbreak-risk-in-northern-india/

Issues Faced During the Relief
Operation:
Ÿ Delay in warning: The was a delay in
initiating and coordinating the warning
mechanisms and the locals were not
signaled about the worsening weather.
Ÿ False Estimation of Victims: The
number of victims and the density of
victims was falsely estimated till a
considerable amount of time into the
rescue operations.
Ÿ Inefficient Coordination:
Miscommunication of protocols between
government rescue teams, the army and
other volunteering organizations.
Ÿ Psychology of victims: The victims were
unwilling to co-operate with the rescue
teams
Ÿ Geography: The rescuers could not
effectively address emergency because
of the rugged landscape which led to poor
decision making in the setting up of relief
camps.
Ÿ Perishability of Supplies:
Ensuring the non-perishability of supplies
was an issue and so was the distribution.
References:
. Adriana Leiras Irineu de Brito Jr Eduardo
Queiroz Peres Tábata Rejane Bertazzo
Hugo Tsugunobu Yoshida Yoshizaki ,
(2014),"Literature review of
humanitarian logistics research: trends
and challenges", Journal of Humanitarian
Logistics and Supply Chain
Management, Vol. 4 Iss 1 pp. 95 - 130
. Humanitarian Supply Chain Management
: Literature Review and Future Research,
Watcharavee Chandraprakaikul
. http://www.springer.com/cda/content/doc
ument/cda_downloaddocument/978364
2301858-c2.pdf?SGWID=0-0-45-
1340522-p174501768
. http://www.exinfm.com/training/pdfiles/
course15.pdf
Figure - http://www.firstpost.com/india/uttarakhand-mass-cremations-begin-in-
kedar-valley-amid-epidemic-fears-899735.html

Operations Management Beyond Business
Aniruddha Wagh is a PGP Student at IIM Raipur. He completed his graduation in
Mechanical Engineering from Maharashtra Institute of Technology, Pune. He has
11 months of work experience with AESSEAL India Pvt Ltd. He can be reached at
15pgp157.aniruddhaa@iimraipur.ac.in
In April 2015, all the newspaper
headlines were highlighting 'Operation
Raahat', the successful mission which was
conducted by the Indian government to
evacuate Indian nationals from war ridden
Yemen. I was very proud of our country but
that was not the only thing. I wondered if
there is any role of Operations Management
in such disastrous situations. I did not pursue
the question at that time. But with the
discussion on Chennai ﬂood relief
operations and the release of 'Airlift' this
weekend, I started digging into that question
again. I found that operations management
studies are beyond business and there are
journals and research work dedicated to this
topic which is called 'Humanitarian
logistics'.
According to Fritz Institute, San
Francisco, Humanitarian logistics include
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Humanitarian LogisticsStudent Article

processes and systems involved in
mobilizing people, resources, skills and
knowledge to help vulnerable people
affected by natural disasters and complex
emergencies. Various activities in
humanitarian supply chain management are
procurement, transport, tracking and tracing,
customs clearance, local transportation,
warehousing and last mile delivery.
Applying management principles in
such situations is not only necessary but it
can improve the reach and effects of
disasters. Large amount of avoidable losses
occur due to inefficiency of logistics and
supply chains in relief operations. Magnitude
of such operations in India is huge. For
example, during Gujarat earthquake in 2001,
international federation of logistics, with its
35 partner organizations, supplied 255,000
blankets, 34000 tents, 120,000 plastic sheets
through its logistics emergency unit.
Transporting such huge amount of material
and distributing it requires lot of efforts in
affected areas. Planned and organized
logistics can reduce these efforts and can
improve effectiveness. It saves wastage and
avoids uneven distribution of perishable
food items along with other useful goods.
Indian Scenario:
During the recent Chennai floods,
logistics was a major problem for the supply
of relief material as well as commodities
such as food items, vegetables and fuels as
well. In India, although the government has
started working in the area of disaster relief,
formal systems of disaster management are
weak and such operations are largely
dependent on military and help from the
NGOs and volunteers. During Chennai
floods, reports of political intervention in
military operations were reported and supply
of petrol was not possible as IOCL drivers'
houses were also hit by floods and they could
not report to the work. No alternate
arrangement was available and long queues
were formed on petrol pumps even though
fuel stock was available for supply.
Vegetables and milk were sold at highly
inflated prices due to man-made scarcity
formed by logistical limitations. Thus
management of humanitarian logistics needs
to be improved significantly.
In recent times, major problem in
disaster management is not lack of money or
relief material but it is management and
distribution of these things. As we saw in the
case of Chennai floods, awareness has been
increased among people and large amount of
relief material was collected but distribution
of this material and reaching all the things to
the needy people is the real problem. Thus
the importance of humanitarian logistics is
increasing.
International Recognition:
This importance was largely
acknowledged after the Tsunami in 2004. In
Sri Lanka Cargo-laden humanitarian flights
were more than the capacity of the airport.
Relief agencies could not find enough
warehouses to store the relief material. The
importance of logistics was iterated in a
donor conference after Tsunami and a
Humanitarian LogisticsStudent Article

European ambassador said “We don't need a
donor's conference, we need a logistics
conference.”
Research by Fritz institute shows that very
few relief agencies have developed
dedicated supply chain and logistics
operations. Apart from natural conditions in
disaster prone areas, nature of funding and
difficult situations, number of other factors
result in inefficient relief operations. These
reasons are:
1. Lack of recognition of importance of
logistics
2. High employee turnover rates
3. Poorly defined manual processes
4. Lack of institutionalization
5. Inadequate use of technology, and
6. Limited collaboration
Required improvements:
Various researchers have studied the
role of logistics in disaster relief and
published the studies to improve the relief
operations.
Majors suggested by the Fritz institute are:
1. Create a professional logistics
community
2. Invest in standardized training
3. Focus on performance measurement
4. Communicate the strategic value of
logistics
5. Develop flexible technology solutions
Some research work states the design
of emergency relief supply chains using total
logistics cost. Another argument is
development of long term thinking and
sustainability has to be considered in the
humanitarian logistics even if we are
working on the short term projects. Thus
preference should be given to develop
sustainable systems rather than increasing
short term efficiency and productivity.
Various methodologies have also been
designed to measure the performance of
humanitarian logistics and supply chain.
Various organizations are working
positively to improve this situation.
International federation of Red Cross have
formed global logistics services and they
also help in the enhancement of national
society logistics capacities. Various
organizations such the humanitarian
logistics association are working to increase
the network of humanitarian logistics and
they also provide training and education in
this area. MIT Humanitarian Response lab is
leading the research on crisis response. They
are involved in various projects as well as
decision making research. The literature in
this area is increasing with fast pace and
there is a dedicated journal on this topic
named Journal of Humanitarian Logistics

and Supply Chain Management. This
journal was started in 2011 and publishes the
latest research work in this field.
Ÿ I will end the article on the alarming
note of the importance of increasing
awareness. Fundamental steps should be
taken when we are safe and not after disaster
has struck the nation. Even the modern
logistics emphasize the importance of 'Just
in Time', we have to take action well before
time in case of developing robust
mechanism of humanitarian logistics as we
cannot turn back the hands of time.
References:
Ÿ http://automotivelogistics.media/news/fl
ooding-in-chennai-causes-plant-closures-
and-supply-disruption
Ÿ http://www.fritzinstitute.org/pdfs/whitep
aper/fromlogisticsto.pdf
Ÿ http://indianexpress.com/article/india/in
dia-others/cyclone-hudhud-power-water-
supply-improve-relief-works-on-brisk-
pace-in-ap/
Ÿ http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/ch
ennai/chennai-floods-with-no-logistical-
help-relief-teams-face-
bumps/article7952877.ece
Ÿ http://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/full/
10.1108/JHLSCM-05-2014-0019
10.1108/JHLSCM-07-2014-0026
10.1108/JHLSCM-04-2013-0016
10.1108/JHLSCM-07-2015-0028
Ÿ https://www.humanitarianlogistics.org/
http://www.ifrc.org/en/what-we-
do/logistics/

Namrata is an FPM student at IIM Raipur. She is a computer science
graduate from Bhilai Institute Of Technology, Durg. She has 22
months of work experience with TCS. She can be reached at
fpm12003.namrata@iimraipur.ac.in .
Disaster Risk Managemenet
Humanitarian logistics is a stream of
logistics and supply chain management
meant for providing necessary products to
the vulnerable section of society. It can be
defined as “planning, implementing and
controlling the efficient and cost-effective
flow of goods and materials as well as
related information, from point of origin to
point of consumption for the purpose of
alleviating the suffering of vulnerable
people” (Thomas and Kopczak, 2005). On
the other hand, vulnerability is
susceptibility to harm, or lack of capability
to cope with adversities (Mechanic &
Tanner, 2007). Hence, the goal of
humanitarian logistics is to mobilize
resources, people, skills and knowledge in
order to help the section of the population
encountering misfortune (Van
Wassenhove, 2006). Kovács and Spens
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·
(2011) classified humanitarian logistics
operations along two different contexts:
Table 1 above presents the difference
between disaster relief operation and
continuous aid operations along various
dimensions.
Ÿ Disaster relief operations: These
operations are meant for short duration, high
urgency, and highly uncertain events.
Disaster can be natural, like earthquake,
flood; or man-made, like, wars, political
crises, emergencies, etc. Thus, these
operations are meant to provide solution for
temporary vulnerability, where despite of the
people and community having the resources,
capability and resilience, still need
assistance to overcome the short termed
vulnerability.
Ÿ Continuous aid operations: Continuous
aid operations are meant for events which
are long duration, low urgency, and low
uncertainty events. Thus, are meant for
overcoming permanent vulnerability,
which is characterized by long term
pattern of severe illness, persistent
poverty and chronic unemployment. The
people/community suffering from
permanent vulnerability lack the
capability to cope up themselves. Hence,
the continuous aid operations often take
place in countries targeted by
development programs in order to ensure
the long-term developmental effects of
aid. Despite its critical role, the subject of
humanitarian logistics for continuous aid
operations is not very well addressed in
research (Kovács and Spens, 2011).
Table 1: Difference between disaster relief and continuous aid operations
Humanitarian LogisticsStudent ArticleSpecials

Furthermore, humanitarian logistics aims
for sustainable solutions from social,
ecological, and economical perspectives.
Thus, despite having differences both
disaster relief and continuous aid
operations should focus on local
procurement, community based approach
and capability building (Kovács & Spens,
2011).
Going forward we would focus more
on the disaster relief operations owing to
considerable research contribution, by
various scholars and practitioners. Next we
will discuss the disaster management cycle,
later we would discuss the humanitarian
efforts of business entities.
Disaster Management Cycle
Despite of less predictability of
disasters, response organizations and
practitioners have developed variety of
tools to reduce the impact and losses.
Disaster management covers wider scope
of prediction, warning, emergency relief,
rehabilitation, and reconstruction; while
crisis is the second phase of disaster
management (Lin Moe & Pathranarakul,
2006). There are four phases in the disaster
management cycle, namely- mitigation,
preparedness, response and recovery.
Ÿ Mitigation Phase: It is a pre-disaster
phase comprising of activities meant for
preventing or eliminating future
emergencies and/or minimizing their
negative effects. This requires hazard
risk analysis and preventive measures.
This demands measures for national and
regional development planning thus is
impacted by the public policies.
Ÿ Disaster Preparedness: This is again a
pre-disaster phase wherein efforts are
made to achieve a level of preparedness
in advance of an emergency. So, that the
individuals and communities get ready
to withstand the disaster with minimum
social and economical loss. This
preparation includes logistical readiness
in the form of response plan and
procedures, skilled volunteers equipped
with early warning and communication
system; resource sufficiency, like,
stocking of food, water, medicines and
other essential commodities.
Ÿ Disaster Response: It is during or
immediately after disaster stage which
includes actions taken in the mid or
immediately after an emergency, aiming
to save lives, improve health, prevent
economic and infrastructural damages,
and support the morale of affected
population. At this phase, the
preparedness plan is put into action.
Also, this phase which catches much
attention by the government, not-for-
profit organizations and media.
Ÿ This post disasterDisaster Recovery:
phase is the longest phase of disaster
management cycle in which actions are
taken to enable the affected community
to return back to normal, as the
community was during pre-disaster
phase or even better. This involves
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utilizing the capability of affected
population to undertake number of
activities which will help in restoring their
lives and infrastructure. Although, there is
no clear demarcation between the
response and recovery, but the recovery or
reconstruction phase demands huge
investment but usually witness little
attention. Recovery is carried out by first
understanding the nature of hazards and
the kind of vulnerabilities followed by
restoration of infrastructural services,
resettlement of affected population and
other social recoveries. Additionally, this
phase also helps in enhancing the
knowledge by understanding the nature of
disaster and vulnerabilities; following
which education, training, and public
awareness campaigns are carried out to
increase the preparedness of the
community, thus, further enhancing the
capability of the community.
Figure 1 presents the disaster
management life cycle which has been
divided into three phases: pre-disaster;
response and post-disaster. Pre-disaster
phase comprises of mitigation and
preparedness phase, while post-disaster
phase is about recovery and reconstruction.
Also, it can be observed that focus of
the last phase of disaster management cycle
is on development and reconstruction which
is a long-term response and qualify for
continuous aid operations (Kunz & Reiner,
2012).
Furthermore, disasters not only affect the
community lives but also disrupt business
functions. The destruction of transportation
infrastructure caused by the disaster affect
the logistic service providers. This also
causes the disruption in production activities
in the affected area, due to which many
business organizations get impacted. Recent
flood in Chennai has resulted into production
loss of Rs 1,700 crore to MSMEs. On the
other hand, IT companies have lost $60
million in the same disaster. During the Japan
earthquake in 2011, Toyota was affected,
since the quake caused disruption at their
suppliers' end, which took more than 3
months for recovery.
Business Organizations and
Humanitarian logistics
With increasing knowledge and
consciousness among businesses about the
impact a disaster brings to the society,
business organizations have started
contributing as a partner in the relief
operations. The contribution can be in the
form of relief funds or in the form of services
provided by the organizations in affected
areas. For example, Agility, a global logistics
provider from Kuwait has provided its
transportation services during Lebanon
crisis in 2006. During 2005 Katrina, Wal-
Mart was quick enough to reopen its stores in
order to help employees and affected
community to survive the adversity.
During the recent Chennai flood in
2015, many organizations like, Cognizant
pledges Rs 260 crore, TCS donated Rs 1,100
crore towards the relief activities while,
Humanitarian LogisticsSpecialsSpecialsSpecials

others like, TVS, Hyundai Motors, SBI
distributed their services in the form of
food packets, water, blankets, medicines
and utensils. Even the startups, have
contributed towards the relief operations
using technology, Paytm offered free
instant recharges of Rs. 30 for people stuck
in Chennai to stay connected, Zomato
offered meals for flood relief victims,
Practo, a health care related platform
provided contacts of verified doctors and
hospitals in the affected area, etc. Apart
from the perspective of social
responsibility, the organizations carry out
these activities to gain visibility and
improve their public image. With the
mandate for CSR in India, companies have
started investing mandated fund towards
the developmental activities.
Recent Developments
Increasing reach of social
networking websites is resulting into the
crowd sourcing efforts in order to combat
disasters. The same was clearly evident
during the Chennai Flood, where people
were offering their home space and
services. Figure 2, presents one such post
shared using Social networking website,
Facebook.
Conclusion
Humanitarian logistics has been an
interesting area of research in the stream of
operations and supply chain management
for more than a decade now. Initially,
started with the focus on disaster relief, the
subject has expanded its scope and provide
huge avenue for research work. The stream
SpecialsSpecials
Figure 2: Facebook post for offering service during Chennai Flood
Humanitarian Logistics

i/s completely aimed for improving and
supporting the lives of vulnerable section
of the society, may be due to disaster or
due to prolonged chronic poverty. The
aspect of non-proﬁtability and
vulnerability complicates the situation.
Further, recent practical experiences like,
use of social network through social
media platforms to combat disaster are
looking up for further enrichments in the
area.
References:
Ÿ Kovács, G., & Spens, K. M. (2011).
Trends and developments in humanitarian
logistics-a gap analysis. International
Journal of Physical Distribution &
Logistics Management, 41(1), 32-45.
Ÿ Lin Moe, T., & Pathranarakul, P. (2006).
An integrated approach to natural disaster
management: public project management
and its critical success factors. Disaster
Prevention and Management: An
International Journal,15(3), 396-413.
Ÿ Mechanic, D., & Tanner, J. (2007).
Vulnerable people, groups, and
populations: societal view. Health Aﬀairs,
26(5), 1220-1230.
Ÿ Thomas, A. S., & Kopczak, L. R. (2005).
From logistics to supply chain
management: the path forward in the
humanitarian sector. Fritz Institute, 15, 1-
15.
Ÿ http://www.ndma.gov.in/en/hazard-risk-
mitigation.html
Ÿ http://disasterphilanthropy.org/the-
d i s a s t e r - l i f e -
cycle/#sthash.IgOBSL0N.dpuf
Ÿ http://www.gdrc.org/uem/disasters/1-
dm_cycle.html

Gurumantra - Trends in Humanitarian logistics
1. So Humanitarian logistics specializes in
organizing the delivery and warehousing of supplies
during natural disasters or complex emergencies to
the affected area and people, isn't it very difficult to
give high performance in such a harsh environment
???
Yes, the challenges in humanitarian logistics
are great and include, among others, limited
availability of resources and infrastructure to
address needs, high uncertainty and urgency
characterizing response efforts, and the presence of
multiple stakeholders who often act with different
objectives. The following 10 ideas are consistently
considered as part of a strategic model for successful
humanitarian relief operations :
1. Demand analysis.
2. Inventory planning and control.
3. Regional coordination and synergies.
4. In-kind donations management.
5. Collaboration among organizations
6. Understanding regional political, economic and
socioeconomic conditions
7. Utilizing local capacity and capabilities.
8. Constant communication.
9. Socioeconomic impact assessment.
10. Humanitarian operations evaluation
2. What are the tools required for successful
implementation of humanitarian logistics?
Information technology (IT), education and
research are important enablers of successful
implementation of a disaster relief or developmental
aid programs. IT allows collecting, storing,
analyzing and disseminating all the data gathered
before and after a disaster hits or as long-term aid
operations progress.
(OR/MS) methodologies and tools have already been
developed extensively to benefit for-profit supply
chains, and they should be adapted to the particular
requirements of humanitarian supply chains.
3. How to improve the efficiency of supply chain
during relief operations?
Develop a basic demand analysis by
considering factors such as type, magnitude,
location and characteristics. Adopt inventory pre-
positioning strategy in order to face uncertainty,
especially when local supply is minimal. Standardise
processes which might help in facilitating regional
cooperation and also concentrate on decentralized
models with neighbouring cities or countries. Build
partnerships with multi- location corporations
which will help in bringing flexibility, agility and
robustness to the supply chain.
4. What is humanitarian logistics and stages in the
humanitarian logistics management?
Humanitarian Logistics refers to the
processes and systems involved in mobilizing
people, resources, skills and knowledge to help
vulnerable people affected by natural disasters and
complex emergencies. Humanitarian logistics
encompasses a range of activities, including
procurement, transport, tracking and tracing,
customs clearance, local transportation,
warehousing and last mile delivery.
Gurumantra

Humanitarian logistics management consists of 4
stages that are aimed at preventing mitigating and
limiting the impact of natural and manmade hazards.
The stages of sustainable humanitarian logistics
management are-
Ÿ Mitigation- During this phase structural and
non-structural measures are taken to prevent,
mitigate and limit the impact of a disaster. The
management steps vary from guidelines to
construction to improved environment policies, and
risk assessment.
Ÿ Preparedness- This involves planning,
organizing and coordinating with various
stakeholders- Government agencies, NGO'S, private
organizations and wider public- to ensure concerted
efforts. This phase also involves assessing,
procuring, and preparing adequate supplies for any
kind of unforeseen event.
Ÿ Response- During this phase, the main objective
of operations is to alleviate suffering, reduce
economic loss, and mitigate the impact of a disaster.
As part of the operations, the following steps are
taken-
Ÿ Reduce further damage
Ÿ Immediate damage assessment
Ÿ Evacuation and temporary shelters.
Ÿ Recovery- Recovery refers to going beyond the
provision of immediate relief. It refers to planning
the post-disaster social and economic life planning.
It entails taking measures to build houses in areas
that are relatively less risk prone, providing
employment opportunities in the newly inhabited
place etc.
5. What are the issues in the effective management of
humanitarian logistics?
Humanitarian logistics management is
highly disturbed by the uncertainty arising from the
unpredictability of environment to unpreparedness
of rescue operations.
Ÿ High uncertainty- The most challenging tasks of
humanitarian logistics management is high
uncertainty associated with the nature, timing,
magnitude and location of disaster; type and
Gurumantra

quantity demand for relief supplies. This uncertainty
in most of the cases leads to inappropriate or excess
or shortage of goods.
Ÿ Degraded infrastructure- The relief operations
are severely constrained and delayed by the
degraded infrastructure – transportation lines,
communication lines- which restrict the
effectiveness of relief operations to the point where
they are badly needed. The disasters affect the
infrastructure which makes the process of rescuing,
evacuation, relief operations difficult.
Ÿ The lack of accurateInformation Gap-
information makes the whole supply chain
ineffective. The difference in language coupled with
a lack of effective coordination between various
agencies working- government, NGO'S among
others- makes the task much more complicated. So
demand for relief supplies should be Pull than push
from headquarters.
Ÿ Human resources- The turnover in humanitarian
logistics company is as high as 80% leading to a
constant outflow of trained professionals and inflow
of untrained employees leading to unskilled
employees who have no formal instruction to carry
out the tasks.
Ÿ Other barriers- Other barriers include lack of
standard methods of performance evaluation of
humanitarian logistics supply chain, unlike the
commercial supply chain. Also, there is often a
mismatch between the demands of the affected
population and the relief supplies.
6. What are the emerging technologies in
Ÿ Drones- Recently Rwanda has launched drone
services for blood transportation to areas where
transportation is difficult. Drone technologies can
be used effectively in humanitarian logistics during a
disaster to ensure last mile delivery.
Ÿ Applications- There is a trend of emergence of
new applications guiding the refugees. This kind of
new applications guides the supply chain network
more accurately with respect to the demanding
nature and location of relief supplies.
Ÿ GPS technologies- Global positioning
technologies are used for better planning of disaster
management. The ready availability of real-time
information on the happenings of a particular
disaster will help in effective planning and mapping
of rescue operations.
7. What are the ways to improve humanitarian
logistics system?
Developing flexible technology solutions
will improve responsiveness by creating visibility of
the materials pipeline and increasing the
effectiveness of people and processes. Furthermore,
advanced information systems will create the
infrastructure for knowledge management,
performance measurement and learning.
Communicating strategic importance of logistics:
Communicating the strategic importance of logistics
in humanitarian relief plays a big role in projecting
its importance to donors and thus ensuring the flow
of sufficient funds for the operations. This can be
done by many ways through media, and
endorsements from professional logisticians from
the corporate world.
Gurumantra

Metrics and performance measurement:
Metrics of measurement and performance
evaluation parameters should be developed to
scientifically gauge the effectiveness of the work
done and identify the flaws in the existing system for
further improvements. The present system of 'getting
the job done on ad hoc basis should be replaced with
the corporate functioning of Plan-Do-Check-Act
corporate process.
Standardized training- lack of standardized training
and operations planning for a particular type of
disaster makes the operations less targeted and same
kind of operations for all disasters. Establishing
standard rules and training programs through
extensive research and collaboration will go a long
way in the effective management of disaster
operations.
8. What are some of the metrics of measurement of
Extensive research has been carried out to
identify the metrics of measurement of humanitarian
logistics effectiveness, but there is no unanimity
regarding the metrics for consideration. Some of the
well-known metrics of measurement are –
Ÿ Appeal coverage- This contains two components-
1. Percent of appeal coverage
2. Percent of items coverage
These two metrics reveal how well the
organization is meeting the demands of its
customers. The first one refers to the percent of items
supplied to the items demanded. While the items
refer to the number of items delivered to items
demanded.
Ÿ Donation-to-Delivery time- This measures the
time was taken to deliver the goods after the items
have been delivered to the organization. This
measures the inventory pile up and outflows of the
materials.
Ÿ Financial efficacy- Refers to the efficient
management of financial resources of the
organization. One metric is the ratio of cost of goods
delivered to an organization to cost incurred to
deliver t to the needy.
Ÿ Assessment accuracy- Refers to how accurate are
the assessments of the field officials in identifying the
needs of the people. There should not be a mismatch
between the goods demanded and goods delivered or
with regard to type of goods demanded.
Gurumantra

Mr.Ashutosh Bajpai is Vice President & Head of India Operations at DHL
Express.
He has produced high performance, process-driven businesses, network of
board level relationships with stakeholders and high proﬁle strategic alliances
that delivered new market opportunities.
He has a proven track record of building new business, teams, solving
complex problems and taking decisions in ambiguity.
He is instrumental in ethically inﬂuencing government policies at
Ministerial level in South Asia which, inter alia, transformed highly threatening
regulation into an important source of new business for Euro 55 Billion DP-
DHL Group.
In Conversation With
Mr. AHUTOSH BAJPAI
Interview
VP & Head of Operations, DHL Express

1. Could you share the difficulties and
barriers that are faced, while transferring
medical equipment in Humanitarian
emergencies?
Usual supply chain networks are already
disturbed during disaster. During such a
period there is tremendous challenge in
finding a suitable transport, warehousing
and the communication network with the
civil administration which is in control of
disaster response activities.
Government agencies in control of disaster
response are extremely occupied and unless
they are familiar with the people who want
to support medical logistics, there is always
delay. The surge in relief supplies and at
times supply of medical equipment which
are not necessarily useful at the affected site
consumes the limited bandwidth available
in supply chain.
Logistics is all about having the right
material at the right place at the right time at
the right cost it is challenged in
unimaginable way during natural disasters.
2. How is the information sharing and
efficient communication managed during
crisis, to overcome deficiencies of shipping
of resources and shortage of urgent supplies
in affected areas?
I believe prior experience coupled with
collaboration with the lead agency and
coordination among all relief organizations
is vital. This is the unnatural situation where
tendency to compete does not help. Those
who need help had no choice but to be in the
affected area and the others went there by
choice to offer help. Prior familiarity helps
in expecting the unexpected. By
collaborating to best utilize every resource
available and having clarity on what to
accept and what to deny makes things
easier. As an example, during one of the
flood relief operations when we offered
some bags and know-how to safely airdrop
household supplies in Bihar, some of our
employees as volunteers went on an air
force operated cargo aircraft from Delhi to
the affected area in the absence of any other
means of transport.
3. What can be some real models (like lean
in manufacturing) that can be implemented
in humanitarian logistics and make it more
time and cost efficient?
This has to be looked at depending upon the
scale of disaster, investment and the time
frame over which solution can be
implemented.
5S is required at all usual times and surely
during relief operation. Defining the
logistics network with the involvement of
private/not-for-profit sector and building a
collaborative model during good times for
use at the time of emergencies can help in
improving cost position and in offering
timely assistance.
4. In a country like India, how can we
integrate humanitarian logistics to regular
supply chain and logistics so that it can be
used as and when required?
The first thing is to build functional
institutional framework for collaboration
on this subject involving NMDA and
practicing professionals . Roles,
responsibilities, incentives and details of
the terms of engagement need to be
articulated for real action that can
demonstrate effective impact on the ground
more than the media opportunities.

5. With the increase in frequency of disasters
how is focus of disaster relief organizations
on planning, acquiring, developing and
retaining the human capital ensured?
My experience is limited to voluntary work
while working in the logistics industry. I
wonder if disaster relief organisations have
done enough beyond traditional reliance on
defence /para-military forces to acquire
skills and built professional talent pool.6.
How feasible is setting up an organization
like NDRF for humanitarian logistics in
India?
NDRF is doing great job. It is difficult to find
such a large pool of dedicated manpower to
mobilize for humanitarian relief operations.
With regard to opportunity for capitalizing
on the advancements in managing logistics
networks efficiently, some work can further
strengthen them if expertise is built through
exchange programs and collaboration with
private sector experts.

Dr. Sumeet Gupta is a professor at IIM Raipur. He has an outstanding academic credential
with PhD.(Information Systems) from School of Computing, National University of
Singapore, Singapore 2006, MBA from National University of Singapore Feb. 2002 and B.E.
Mining from Government Engineering College, Pt. Ravishankar Shukla University
Raipur(CG) 1998.His area of research are Technology Adaption, Mobile Commerce, and
ElectronicCommerce,VirtualCommunities,andSupplyChainManagement.
Dr. Sumeet Gupta
Social Media for Disaster Coordination:
The case of Chennai Floods
Academia
Abstract
Recent years have witnessed
increase use of Social Media for
coordination during disaster. While a
number of Social Media can be used
for coordination, Twitter has
particularly been used due to its
ability to provide real-time status
updates as a stream of messages. In
this article, we examine the use of
Social media by brieﬂy discussing the
case of Chennai Floods and show
how the use of Social Media,
particularly Twitter has helped in
coordination activities among
various stakeholders during the
disaster. :

Introduction:
With the increased number of disasters
during the last decade, an increased need for
proper coordination has been felt by disaster
coordinators all over the world. Coordination
comes at all levels before, during and after
the disaster. While pre-disaster coordination
can be well organized, what is important is
coordination after disaster. A number of
frameworks have been proposed by
researchers for improving coordination
during disaster (Gupta et al., 2016). Use of
ICT, particularly Social Media such as
Facebook and Twitter, has informally grown
since last few years for improving disaster
coordination and communication with
common people.
During the 2012 Hurricane Sandy,
Twitter reported approximately 20 million
tweets posted. New Jersey's utility company,
PSE&G, mentioned at the subcommittee
hearing that they used their Twitter feeds to
alert about the daily locations of their giant
tents and generators. The Philippines
experienced two major natural disasters in
2013, the magnitude7.2 earthquake in Bohol
October 15 and Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan)
on November 8. Critical information about
the damage caused by the quake, along with a
few photos of its impact, were posted first on
social media. The Bohol Quake Assistance
Facebook page monitors efforts done for
rehabilitation in areas hit by an earthquake
severely. It publishes photos of disaster
response initiatives like information about
the local and international donors and
distribution of their donations. Tacloban
Yolanda Update group on Facebook
consisting of 24,880 members is made to
motivate its members to post articles, photos
or videos of rescue and relief efforts in
Central Philippines. This Facebook group
was established for members to post
inquiries of advances in the areas in
Tacloban. It helped in finding missing
persons and updating information on them
and organizing distribution of relief goods
and funds. It also helped in promoting
various other causes, like book drives and fun
runs.
NDRRMC i.e. national disaster risk
reduction and management council makes
use of social media platforms to expose
highlights and important news related to
conferences based on disaster risk reduction
and management. It also shares various
government initiatives taken in relation to
prevention and mitigation of disasters. In this
paper, we look at the current status and usage
of social media for coordination during
disaster.
Coordination during disaster
ICT has been recorded to enhance the
coordination efforts, such as that used during
recent disasters in Thailand and India
(Uttarakhand). One of the most crucial
element required during any disaster
management is proper flow of information.
The speed and accuracy of information can
determine how well the management could
be done and how fast things get back to
normal. The effective management of crisis
is very crucial for a country to keep itself
stable in times of unfavorable conditions.
People use social media for providing first-
hand disaster accounts, determining disaster
magnitude, obtaining emotional support and
healing and checking in with family and
friends.
Social media has been very successful in
accomplishing this task of effective to and fro
transfer of information that leads to various
organizations respond in suitable manner.
The most prominent characteristics of social
media for coordination include clarity,
collectivity, collaboration, completeness and
collectedness, which make it highly
desirable for crisis management. The use of
social media seems to have been exploded
from a bud and is being dispersed around at
an increasing rate.

Academia
.The advent of a number of social media
tools have also benefitted a lot of
traditional processes, disaster management
being one of them. These help
organizations in publicizing, acquiring and
analyzing the data in an effective manner.
The social media has an immense power of
controlling and stabilizing any crisis.
Twitter was used as a platform to provide
reports, broadcast helpful information
about assistance and help and gather local
relief efforts during the Chennai floods.
People sent over 1.4 million tweets using
#ChennaiRains, #ChennaiFloods and
#ChennaiRainsHelp hashtags to assemble
help during the affected period. Similarly,
during 2014 Kashmir floods, army and
twitter partnered to come up with an
automatic SOS service for rescuing tasks
Disaster affected communities take
help of social media for communication
and coordination by getting reports on
demand supply requirements during
emergency situations. Then these
requirements are matched with any
availability of resources provided by
responders or helpers. During early hours
of any disaster this may act as a blessing.
The process includes abstraction of data in
terms of time and location, resource status,
degree of requirements, information
source, presence of potential users and
responders. The simple goal is to match
demand supply gap in suitable time which
is made realistic by the help of social media
like social networks, blogs, bookmarking
sites, collaborative projects, content
communities and social reviews. By the
use of these tools like social networking
sites, the severity of crisis can be estimated
along with the source and accordingly help
can be managed. The exact information can
be sent to affected people and responders.
Twitter uses “hashtags” and Facebook has
come up with a “mark safe” feature to
target the affected people. Google came up
with a spreadsheet that could be filled up by
people who could offer shelter to the
affected people. Collaborative projects can
be started on social platforms by inviting
various organizations having strong
database which can be used to analyze and
help in preparing beforehand.
Social media has proved to be highly
effective in coordination during a number
of crises. The process of coordination itself
is very demanding. It is very important that
proper coordination and collaboration
between various organizations occur so
that the disaster can be managed
effectively. There are a number of ways in
which organizations can coordinate. They
are coordination through clusters, chain
coordination, and open network of
humanitarian firms and engagement of
local public. Cluster coordination
comprises of bringing together various
operative bodies specializing in specific
domains and solve a specific purpose when
and where required. This is fetching
together organizations to improve
efficiency in developing resources to meet
emergencies. Next comes the chain
coordination, it is a way of bringing
together procedures in a chain, like
subsequent steps. It can be horizontal or
vertical.
Horizontal occurs within a chain and
includes coordination of organizations at
same level for e.g. Synchronizing two
NGOs together whereas vertical is along
the chain, upstream and downstream.
Involvement of local population ensures
sufficient supply of manpower required
during such emergencies

Academia
.CONCLUSION
We examined the use of Social
Media for Disaster Coordination focusing
on the case of Chennai floods. Twitter was
the widely used social media for its
capability of providing real time status
updates about the crisis. It was a crucial
platform for saving a number of lives
during crises. This has been consistently
been proved by various incidents that have
happened of which Chennai Floods, Nepal
earthquake, Kashmir floods are prominent.
Social media had evolved as a major
medium for producing, sending and
receiving help. It has changed and changed
for better. We can also conclude that among
various types of Social Media microblogs,
such as Twitter are particularly useful for
coordination during disaster due to their
ability of providing real time tweets and
status updates.
REFERENCES:
Ÿ Gupta, Sumeet, B. S. Sahay, and
Parikshit Charan. "Relief Network Model
for Efficient Disaster Management and
Disaster Recovery." In Managing
Humanitarian Logistics, pp. 85-104.
Springer India, 2016.

Academia
.. The availability of right help at right time
in right amount will ensure early solutions.
Also local people are much aware of their
area and have connections with local
authorities.
The case of Chennai floods
Twitter, a micro blogging website,
which is usually a platform where people
express themselves liberally on trending
issues, became a powerful weapon to help a
plethora of population during Chennai
floods. The annual northeast monsoon
generated heavy rainfall in the Coromandel
Coast region of Tamil Nadu and Andhra
Pradesh, the union territory of Pondicherry
with the city of Chennai particularly worst
hit. Approximately round 500 people lost
their lives and over 18 lakh people were
displaced. Damages and losses are
estimated to be ranging from 50000 crore
INR to 100000 crore INR.
For three days, twitter became the
only media which showed a ray of hope to
people affected by the floods. People all
over India posted various helpful posts.
Other humorous and controversial issues
disappeared. It looked like everyone was
trying their bit to help the victims.
Hashtags like #ChennaiRains,
#ChennaiRainsHelp, #ChennaiVolunteer,
#ChennaiRescue were trending all over the
website. Tweets contained a lot of
information about safe places, doctors,
helpline numbers, boats etc. Some people
even posted about availability of prepared
food. Volunteers were invited for various
tasks required to rescue and help the needy.
Tweets talked about general information
about affected individuals, areas and news
about the crisis, food, supplies and rescue
efforts, weather, forecasts of rain and
further developments and cautioned people
on risky areas and share information on
relief efforts. The various hashtags served
different purposes-
· Sympathy (#PrayForChennai)
· Requests for help (#savechennai,
#ChennaiRainsHep)
· Information on further weather
forecasts (#chnnaiweather)
· Information on specific areas in
Chennai (#airort, #Chromepet)
· Cautionary messages
(#ExerciseCaution)

Regular
Crossword
Across
5. Name of the Hurricane which occurred in 2005 and which is also known as the costliest
disaster is
6. The queue for Star Wars was too long so I decided to
8. The forecasting model, which was named after a seer's originating place.
9. A quality control tool which distinguishes between 'important few' and "trivial many'
13. mechanisms eliminates duplication of resources, cut costs and improve responsiveness of the
supply chain.
14. With this kind of fool-prooﬁng in a design, one can never go wrong
16. The name of Indian police force constituted for the purpose of specialist response to a
threatening the
disaster situation or a disaster

17. A famous celebrity had started foundation in 2006 to assist with humanitarian crises
worldwide. In 2001 she was named a United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
(UNHCR) Goodwill Ambassador. Identify this personality
18. Name the operational aspect of a Kaizen project which aims at having standards that
everyone has to adhere
19. An inventory model which does not provide order quantity
20. The main reason for the emergence of bottlenecks during humanitarian logistics is due to lack
of
21. The name of Indian airforce operation to rescue ppl affected by 2013 north indian floods
Down
1. The indicator used to measure the performance of U.S Army during relief operations
2. What is IMedecins Sans Frontieres' best known as
3. The phase which refers to laws and mechanisms that reduce social vulnerability is
4. In disaster management cycle, silent network is also known as
7. 1. ________ is the measure of quantity of items that have been pledged by donors and
percentage of items that have actually been delivered on-site out of the total number of items
requested.
10. New Year resolutions usually won't work as perfection isn't a one time thing but regular
improvement
11. 4. The logistics giant involved with Direct Relief, Heart to Heart International and Water
Missions International in order to facilitate the relief operations during Nepal tragedy
12. The effectiveness of the emergency aid response hinges on
15. A process of putting together a team of cross functional professionals and providing them with
the required resources and mandate for the product development process is called
Engineering.
Regular

Answer Key

About Us
OPEP, The Operations and Supply Chain Club of IIM Raipur
endeavors’ to facilitate sharing of knowledge on ﬁelds related to
Operations and Supply Chain Management through Guest
Lectures, Articles, Newsletters, Field Visits, Live Projects, Book
Reviews, Quizzes, Case Studies, Simulation Games and
through Bi-annual Magazine -STRIVE
OPEP club at IIM Raipur tries to put forth a broad sharing
platform for operations Management and Supply Chain
management.
The team also plans to initiate an interaction forum to discuss
relevant problems, industry paradigms and knowledge.
OPEP members are a mix of experienced students from diverse
backgrounds providing traction test to their theoretical
knowledge and lectures with the tight rope walk of projects
often converging the virtual and real.
OPEP Club- Blog
OPEP Club- Facebook Page

- -
-

For more details, please contact:
Operations and Supply Chain Club
Indian Institute of Management Raipur,
GEC Campus, Old Dhamtari Road,
Sejbahar,
Raipur - 492 015.
Email Id : opep@iimraipur.ac.in
TO A MORE FOOD
SECURE WORLD

Humanitarian Logistics (Vol 5 Issue 2)

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