Humanitarian supply chains and performance measurement schemes in practice

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide a system for the performance evaluation of humanitarian supply chains. The system will help humanitarian organizations (HOs) to make better decisions, improve their performance, and provide accountability, as well as helping them measure their operational performance during disaster response and reconstruction projects. Design/methodology/approach – A holistic and implementable performance measurement system was developed to measure the operational performance of HOs during disaster response and reconstruction projects. The system is divided into five categories with several key performance indicators (KPIs) being identified for each; identifiers are qualitative and quantitative, as well as financial and non-financial. Findings – Empirical testing of the system demonstrated the low use of existing performance indicators in humanitarian supply chains and the possible added value for HOs to improve their operational efficiency. Social implications – The performance measurement system could help HOs improve their operations and resource allocation. Originality/value – The paper is one of the first research contributions in which a sample of developed KPIs is empirically tested in various HOs. Prior to this paper, a limited number of articles examined the performance of HOs, and no defined system of KPIs existed. By analyzing real results in the field of the humanitarian projects and applying the proposed performance measurement system, it will be possible to define a set of best approaches to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of humanitarian supply chains.

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

“…In their research, Santarelli et al (2015) and Scholten et al (2010) explain that HOs have high levels of flexibility in their SCs while we could not confirm this in Nepal case. The divergence can be explained by the differences between either the set of flexibility measurement criteria, corresponding weights for them, or the specific topography of Nepal.…”

“…However, only few researchers propose definitions for 'flexibility in HSCs' (Scholten et al 2010;Santarelli et al 2013Santarelli et al , 2015. Scholten et al (2010) define flexibility in HSC through its dimensions, such as resources and distribution while Santarelli et al (2013Santarelli et al ( , 2015, define it as an ability to adapt to changing external conditions.…”

“…-Research design: Despite the demand for empirically grounded research in HSCs literature (Baharmand et al 2015;Pedraza-Martinez and Van Wassenhove 2016), to the best of our knowledge, no paper use empirical evidence to develop, inform, and/or implement flexibility measurement framework for HSCs. Few papers apply their framework to real cases (Charles et al 2010;Santarelli et al 2013Santarelli et al , 2015. Table 2 shows a summary of analyzing flexibility measurement research in both CSC and HSC literature.…”

“…These tools help to assess the current state and thus, enable developing plans for improvements. Two approaches can be distinguished: indirect and direct assessment (Santarelli et al 2015;Abidi et al 2014). There are several performance measurement tools in HSC literature that follow the first approach (Van Wassenhove 2006;Oloruntoba and Gray 2006;Jahre et al 2007;Beamon and Balcik 2008;Perry 2007;Santarelli et al 2013;Day 2014).…”

“…To show this, we implement our framework on a real case, the 2015 Nepal earthquake response, and discuss the implications of results for both theory and practice. (Moon et al 2012) Fleet (F) To change planned or assumed fleets (Slack 2005) Delivery (D) To change planned or assumed delivery dates (Slack 2005) Trans-shipment (T) To move stock between local supplier and demand locations where physical distances between them are small (Grigore 2007) Access and routing (AR) To provide intensive distribution coverage (Naim et al 2006) Information systems (ISF) IT support (IT) To use IT as support for material and information flow control (Moon et al 2012) Information databases (ID) To have means to store and aggregate data (Moon et al 2012) Decision support systems (DSS) To have access to systems that can assist decision-making (Baharmand et al 2015) Resources (RF) Human resources (HR) To have access to human resources with relevant qualifications (Krajewski et al 2005) Local partners (LP) To have local NGOs as operational partners (Santarelli et al 2015) 3 Research design Our paper aims at developing a comparable quantitative measure of HSC flexibility which can help to identify improvement strategies. Our research design follows Bourne et al (2000) who propose four steps for developing a performance measurement system: (a) system design; (b) implementation of measures; (c) use of measures to assess the implementation strategy; and (d) use of measures to challenge strategy.…”