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 [email protected]

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

ContentExclusive interview with Mr. Ashutosh Bajpai, VP & Head of Operations, DHL Express

Gurumantra

Crossword

Operational Issues in Not for Prot 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

[email protected]"

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

[email protected]

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 sciencegraduate from Bhilai Institute Of Technology, Durg. She has 22 months of work experience with TCS. She can be reached at [email protected] .

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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Humanitarian LogisticsSpecials

·

(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 disaster Disaster 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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Humanitarian LogisticsSpecials

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.

ConclusionHumanitarian 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 accurate Information 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 Electronic Commerce , Virtual Communities, and Supply Chain Management.

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



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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 : [email protected]

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