Integrating supply chains for emergencies and ongoing operations in UNHCR

• Humanitarian organizations (HOs) often base their warehouse locations on individuals' experience and knowledge rather than on decision-support tools. Many HOs run separate supply chains for emergency response and ongoing operations. Based on reviews of humanitarian network design literature combined with an in-depth case study of United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), this paper presents a warehouse location model for joint prepositioning that incorporates political and security situation factors. Although accessibility, co-location, security, and human resources are crucial to the practice of humanitarian operations management, such contextual factors have not been included in existing network optimization models before. We found that when quantified, and modeled, such factors are important determinants of network configuration. In addition, our results suggest that joint prepositioning for emergency response and ongoing operations allows for expansion of the global warehouse network, and reducing cost and response time.

Subject headings

TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER  -- Samhällsbyggnadsteknik -- Transportteknik och logistik (hsv//swe)

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY  -- Civil Engineering -- Transport Systems and Logistics (hsv//eng)

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Annan samhällsvetenskap -- Tvärvetenskapliga studier inom samhällsvetenskap (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Other Social Sciences -- Social Sciences Interdisciplinary (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Facility location

Network configuration

Prepositioning

UNHCR

Technology (byts ev till Engineering)

Teknik

Economy

Ekonomi

Facility location

Network configuration

Prepositioning

UNHCR

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)