Logistic Management Issues - Essay Example

Logistic Management Abstract Humanitarian logistics is a process that involves planning, implementation and control of efficient, cost effective movement and keeping of goods and materials in addition to information related to point of origin of goods and the point of consumption where the beneficiaries are. The purpose entails a variety of activities such as procurement, warehousing, packaging, transport and tracing. Humanitarian organizations seek to create a balance between speed and costs incurred in their supply chain. Introduction Disasters occur more frequently globally, they are more complex and the support of the donors has become more unpredictable. As a result to such a scenario, the humanitarian agencies seek solutions that are more effective and efficient. This report therefore looks into the best methods that can be employed to overcome challenges faced in humanitarian aid response. When disasters strike, they test how best our systems are, specifically how different actors will work together in response to the aid needed. There is always a need for all the actors to coordinate their actions so as to curb the effects of the fallen disaster. However, these actors can never deliver all the plans effectively for a given period of time in relieving human pain. Humanitarian Logistics Characteristics Making this different actors to come together so as to deliver the required services seems to be hard therefore a plan that goes beyond mere transportation of goods from one point to another is vital so as to overcome the challenges involved in delivering aid in the stricken region. It is therefore essential to include a supply chain management which will ensure that coordination is well attained and redundancies are minimized while speed and costs are made effective. (Thomas, 2004) says that a well planned management chain will also help to provide an analysis for post event learning. In delivering humanitarian aid to a disaster stricken region, it is always effective to minimize costs and increase speed of delivering the aid to the beneficiaries that will reduce wastage of the aid; this will ensure that the right goods are delivered at the right place at the right time. This makes aid rich the ones that need it the most at the right time. There is variations in the intensity levels of disasters in different that strike in different places, hence each of the disasters require different response. However, irrespective of their nature, they present different stages such as ramp- down, rump- up and sustain. The first few days since the onset of the disaster is the rump up. During this period, the highest priority is to getting to the disaster field and getting the operations set up as fast as possible. During the sustain stage, programs are supposed to be implemented while efficiencies and cost are looked into to ensure that they are effective. In the ramp- down humanitarian agencies concentrate mobilization of operations and materials to be transferred to local actors. Considering the shift from one stage to another, the transition considers mostly a shift from speed to reduction in cost. Driven by the fact that there is high level of uncertainty and there is varying need for urgency, during the rump up all focus goes to speed and urgency without considering cost effectiveness. Humanitarian agencies such as World Food Program put their priority to the urgency of getting to the affected region, asses the region and analyze the degree of damage and come up with the quantity of resources needed and the possible required solutions.(The Commonwealth Report, 2007) reports that the Lebanese crisis of 2006 provides a perfect case example of a humanitarian operation where the basic role of the international humanitarian community was to tackle the security issues affecting the region. A flourishing and a resilient nation such as Lebanon with a long history in humanitarian operations had its own capability to handle its needs and provided all the resources that were required when the Israelis destroyed great parts of its nation, the airports, roads, bridges and bridges. The only fear in the country was the issue of insecurity that hindered mobilization of humanitarian goods around the nation. The international humanitarian agencies such as the United Nations and the local agency Red Crescent Societies had to go into talks with the Israeli forces to let their mandate and humanitarian space to be reiterated. The main principle on which they needed space is humanity, neutrality and impartiality. Thomas, 2009) writes that these three principles combined ensures that the humanitarian agencies will not align themselves or draw a line that is biased toward a particular group while attending to cases of human suffering. In return to humanity principles they are granted protection from fighting and given full accessibility to attend to their humanitarian job. The humanitarian aid was able to be taken around Lebanon despite the challenges of insecurity posed by the conflict. In transporting the materials for aid the speed of the driver becomes an important consideration to meet the required urgency. If less time is taken to respond to the disaster then there is time for improvement as far as beneficiaries are concerned and there will be more room for more donations. This will validate the process of transfer of operations to the affected area which will be a key factor in the general humanitarian response effectiveness. When there is a clear visibility of helping the beneficiaries that are roles have been defined and operations laid in place, matters pertaining to cost can be looked into. This is supposed to be adhered to when the needs of the beneficiaries has been defined and donations received. Cost is adhered to once the beneficiaries start to get their donations. This is essential because donors will always demand to know how their resources have been used in the process of relieving human suffering.A concrete example is directed to the transport section in the rump up stage where operations are transported in all stages at any costs whether they or transport by road. The main priority at first is to reach the suffering individuals to relieve them from pain. When the cases have calmed down, the same materials for beneficiaries will be transported to the region affected using cheaper means. The materials will also be procured cheaply, in that they may buy the materials from cheaper supplies unlike in the rump up stage where the materials would be acquired at any cost provided they are acquired. Consequently delivery of materials through local actors is preferred and they may transport the materials using road or sea. (Thomas, 2008) writes that It is however noted in humanitarian logistics that the balance between speed and cost should not be limited to response to disaster alone rather should be pertinent to preparedness of the disaster, that is if the supply chain is closer to the regions where materials are acquired. The humanitarian agencies work towards developing a model that allows preparation of products to meet the objectives of delivering the operations timely without any delays. For instance, they will preposition materials regionally to minimize the procurement costs of the goods that are of high standards with high demand while at the same time reducing the led time after which the disaster had fallen. In other instances, proposition gives the humanitarian agencies a chance to postpone by allowing delay to the very possible moment where there will be a combination of materials that will be forwarded to the field in order to adapt them to the local needs. Uncertainties of Humanitarian Aid Supply and Demand To respond to the uncertainties in demand and supply of the humanitarian aids, supply chain management of the humanitarian agencies was made the center of functions in the organizations. These organizations have decentralized a logistics unit by making it regional which will improve urgent response to disaster prone areas and have their solutions customized to local needs. Concentrating on structures of the supply chains, and processes to urgently respond to disasters, they saw the value to improve the level of preparedness and the capability to cope with uncertainties of demand and supply of the aid materials. Demand uncertainty can be resolved quickly as the humanitarian supply chain is triggered. Uncertainties in demand can be expected in the field to avoid confusion and complicated processes when delivering aid to the damaged region. This was once experienced in Iraq by the locals when they anticipated shortages in fuel way before the humanitarian agencies were on the ground. Failure to recognize this requirement would have caused serious disruptions in the process of humanitarian aid. The anticipation was vital during that time because rightful rationing ensured efficient use of the resources that were at their disposal. On the contrary, supply uncertainties are more complex because the generosity of the donor is almost unpredictable. It is difficult to match supply and demand because there is no data available on both the two variables because there is no any centralized data. (Kovacs, 2009) writes that disasters are supposed to be funded accordingly in an ideal world. Unfortunately donors are human therefore they are only driven by motivation that is based on their personal feelings, religious views political ploys or media attention. Many disasters pass unnoticed as a result of such supply uncertainties. In addition, those that get relief funds may fail to get those needs that are of urgent need. Packaging of Materials and Warehousing Warehousing in humanitarian aid is essential so as to keep the materials needed by the beneficiaries to ensure constant supply. The warehouse could also store the physical left over materials that might be needed again by the beneficiaries. The total amount of the products or materials to be dispatched to the beneficiaries is also stored in the warehouse. (Whiting, 2009) adds that it is essential to keep the materials or food in the warehouse so as to ensure monthly supply of the food to the affected people. It will be essential if the stock register is kept so as to minimize loses through theft. The records of in and out stock will help to monitor the usage of the material which can determine the cost incurred too. Therefore when the rump up period is over it is important to monitor movement of stock in and out of the warehouse. For proper recording stock controller fills the records and indicates the following; date, description of the product, vehicle identification in that the vehicle that brings the products or takes the products, number of the waybill and the data of stock that comes in or goes out. At the end of a given period, for instance a month, the register of the stock is summarized in the commodity status of the warehouse. Hale, (1999) writes that the report will help to provide information about the stock that is physically present at the start of a new month. The amount of the food received and donated out for that month will be determined from the data recorded. The balance will be given out which will provide documentation to all the private sectors that might have helped in donating resources to disaster response. Physical inventory calculated at the offset of the month will check if there are any differences between the calculated balance and the physical inventory itself. The report gotten from warehouse stock control data is taken to the manager in charge of the project who again forwards to the senior secretary to add the waybills to the report of the Humanitarian agency involved, in my case World Food Organization. (Van, 2008) says that to ensure effective use of the warehouse in humanitarian aid operations and management, the warehouse should ensure certain operations are put in place for instance; the location of the very warehouse is best related to only available space and the buildings that are around the beneficiaries’ location. There should be no time wasting to search for a more optimal space to locate the warehouse as afar as investments and operational costs are concerned. The warehouse terrain should also be under continuous surveillance by a guard to minimize cases of looting. While in the warehouse the food should be kept on the pallets and should be standing apart at about half a meter from each other and from the wall the same distance. If there is more space available, new food will be kept separate from the older food, if there is no space, new food will be kept on top of the older food which might facilitate the food to go bad. If there is space various layers on the pallet will not have the same number of product units. The way of storing gives the warehouse an arrangement that is unique in that the number of units is Witten on the sack, this makes retrieval so easy and the inventory can easily be taken for recording. Recommendations for a Warehousing i. Introducing a system that ensures all inventories is checked in or out and also maintains a proper record of all the expiry of goods to avoid unnecessary food wastage of the food stored in the warehouse. ii. Humanitarian agencies require a registration and a system to check for the date on which the foods will expire in the warehouses. If the packages contain no labeled expiry date it will be difficult to detect such a date. It also helps the supervisor of the warehouse to work with the use of a guideline. iii. For instance when there are a given number of weeks between the times when food is received from World Food Program and the time when the same food will be distributed to the beneficiaries, at points of distribution, samples should be taken to ascertain the quality of the food being distributed. The form attached to every pallet should be checked by the warehouse supervisor to ascertain the expiry date of the food. iv. Construct sheds for loading and offloading of goods at the warehouse premises v. Trucks should be able to be driven right into the house so as to avoid offloading or loading during bad weather conditions such as during rainy seasons. vi. Introduction of more efficient storage method that will allow storage of similar quantity of units in every layer. This will allow efficient use of space in the warehouse Transportation It would be cost effective if own truck is bought to be used to transport goods from the warehouse to the beneficiaries, or from the source to the warehouse. This will be beneficial in the future logistics of the agency.(Gray, 2006) says that the company should consider the costs incurred in procurement and maintenance the issues related to the rented truck failing to reach the intended point on time. It is also vital for the agency to consider the future of humanitarian need in the region and to formulate a policy on what to be done on old trucks once they get worn out hence no longer needed in the agency. Look into the significance of the truck owners and absorb them into the agency. This is because the market for truck owners is small which can allow the track owners to work for the agency. Their payment needs a higher priority consideration in the future. (Nichols, 2009) affirms that in humanitarian logistics, transport carries a lot off weight or importance in supply chain. Therefore it would be necessary for the agency to convince the truck owners to work for the agency.Left over always lack transport back the warehouse, this is because the agency pays a little attention to the needs of the truck owners or gives them very minimal profit margin. This kind of scenario demoralizes the truck owners and they no longer need to work for the agency once more. When their set obligations are not met, when the truck driver delays showing up at the right time, it becomes hard for the agency to take measures. The agency seems not to be in a good position because the number of private trucks present is low and the workers no longer desire to work with the agency. It lacks extensive resource pool from which to draw its funds. Based on experience the agency has to fill the balance between taking private companies contracts and taking measures such as employing the truck owners. Recommendations to Transport i. Absorb the truck owners as employees to increase accessibility to means off transport in case of emergencies ii. Motivate the truck drivers to respond to emergencies with the required urgency iii. Formulate an action to be taken towards dispose of old trucks iv. The agency also has to advance to the private truck owners with a written documentation about their expectation with the agency payment. Coordination Task and responsibilities of various actors in the agency have to complete their activities in a timely and efficient manner without causing each other inconveniences. The agency has to come up with a project manager for the emergencies concerning food. It also has to consider the relief of the project for the officers who are manning the work with a lot on their hands and less time. This creates a hitch in the smooth running of the agencies projects. This hitch causes a problem in the coordination of the projects in the agency. Lack of coordination makes the other teams fail to contact the manager explicitly. Fundamental reports that are supposed to be handed directly to the manager take a longer period before they are acted upon. This communication gap has to bridge to allow smooth running of the organization. This will have great effect on the beneficiaries, they may fail to get enough of the relief materials and they may continue to be victims of the struck disaster. Therefore the following recommendations are made: i. Appointing any staff member to act in the position of the project manager would be beneficial whenever the projector manager cannot be reached. ii. The food aim monitoring team would be important if they were provided with a radio that would cover the whole day during distribution. iii. New reporting systems should be set in place so as to adhere to the hierarchical order of communication in the agency to enhance coordination between various members. Attitude of professional work is hard to gain if there is no protocol or respect at work. For instance when the daily food monitoring reports are made they should first pass through the field coordinator before the report is taken to the project manger. iv. There should be appropriate stuff training for all the project functions. The description of the job has to be made clear to the staff in relation to each other. Precise work instructions should be provided so as to provide guidelines to the employees of the agency. The agency has to formulate a work manual for the entire food emergency project and that it would be necessary to update the manual on regular basis to check with arising work requirements. In conclusion, Humanitarian agencies always to reinforce their logistics because it’s the core means through which their mission is accomplished. They move from one place to other with the immediate urgency so as to relieve human suffering. They do so while transporting material needed from the aid. The material can be relief food, medical equipments clothing or providing shelter materials for people like the refugees. To make their work effective activities that concern warehousing, transport, packaging and coordination has to be well structured so as to respond to a disaster with the appropriate urgency and speed at the right time and the right place. This ensures that the principles on which they operate become functional in their humanitarian work. References Chomilier, B., Samii, R., Van Wassenhove, L.N., 2003. The Central Role of Supply Chain Management at The IFRC. Forced Migration Review 18, 15–18.1 Hale, H. (1999), Commodity Management Enhancement Project - Food Aid Logistics Operational Handbook, Boston: Care. Commonwealth Report (2007). Australian Manufacturing: Today and Tomorrow, House of Representatives Standing Committee on Economics Finance and Public Administration, Commonwealth of Australia, Retrieved 12th Jan 2013 from Http://Www.Aph.Gov.Au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/House_Of_Representativ es Committees?Url=Efpa/Manufacturing/Report.Htm Gray, R 2006, Humanitarian Aid: An Agile Supply Chain, Supply Chain Management: An International Journal, Vol. 11, No. 2. K 2009, Identifying Challenges In Humanitarian Logistics, International Journal Of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management, Murphy, P.R & Wood, D 2011, Contemporary Logistics,International, 10the edition, Pearson, New Jersey. Kovacs, K. (2009). Identifying Challenges in Humanitarian Logistics International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management 39(6) 132-145 Whiting, M.C. & Ayala-Ostrom, B 2009, and Advocacy Top Promote Logisticsin Humanitarian Aid, Management Research News,Vol. 32, No. 11. R., Nichols, E., 1999. Introduction To Supply Chain Management. Palgrave, London. Thomas, A., (2008) Leveraging Private Expertise For Humanitarian Supply Chains. Forced Migration Review (Oxford, UK) 21, 144–122. Tomasini, R., Van Wassenhove, L.N., 2008a. Humanitarian Response To The 2006 Lebanese- Israeli Crisis. INSEAD Case 2008-5495 Read More