Supply chain management for Disaster Relief Operations: principles and case studies

Recently, there is an increasing concern toward the management of logistics/supply chain for Disaster Relief Operations (DROs). While some aspects of commercial logistics/supply chain are applicable for DROs, many are not directly transferable. Based on the literature review, we propose a principle of supply chain management for DROs and then apply it as a framework to evaluate the handling of logistics operation of two recent DROs in Indonesia. We found some common problems, such as lack of professional logisticians and difficulty of coordination, but significant differences in terms of the degree of information visibility and the intensity of coordination among the involved parties.