How to deliver on the promises
Raising money is the easy part. With pictures of devastation on Asian coasts hitting television screens, donations to survivors have been pouring in at record rates. But as one of the world's biggest relief efforts gets under way, the Indian Ocean tsunami disaster will provide one of the toughest tests of recent advances in humanitarian supply-chain management.
The logistical obstacles to delivering food, medicine and shelter to people in times of famine, war or natural disaster make managing a commercial supply chain look easy. For a start, local infrastructure has often been destroyed, making it hard to land cargo planes or drive trucks into affected areas. In conflict zones, rebel forces may try to obstruct the passage of supplies.
Instead of the relatively stable demand enjoyed by the private sector, relief agencies face surges in demand whose timing, location and scale are unpredictable. Many aid organisations have goods stockpiled in warehouses around the world, but with the site of the next event impossible to determine, those supplies may still have to be transported great distances.
While commercial supply chains operate through a fixed number of distribution points in known locations, aid agencies must create distribution centres virtually overnight, often in difficult conditions. And with no lead times, organisations race against the clock to satisfy “customers” for whom delays can mean the difference between life and death.
Furthermore, relief agencies often find themselves dealing with unwanted supplies, particularly drugs that are inappropriate or past their expiry date. Donations received during Eritrea's 1989 independence war, for example, included seven truckloads of expired aspirin tablets that took six months to burn. Inappropriate donations are so common that relief missions now routinely bring incinerators with them to the scene of a disaster to destroy items that may be dangerous or are clogging up the system.
All this is far removed from the lean, just-in-time supply-chain practices pioneered by companies such as Dell, the computer manufacturer. Nevertheless, in spite of the very different nature of relief operations, the humanitarian sector is finding that valuable lessons can be learned from commercial practices.
Outsourcing, for example, has made its way into the humanitarian world, with many agencies establishing pre-purchasing agreements with suppliers of drugs, tents, sheeting or blankets. “The old idea that disaster preparedness meant filling up your warehouse is disappearing,” says Peter Walker, former director of disaster and refugee policy at the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. “The issue isn't keeping things in stock. It's having your supply chain sufficiently worked out.”
Partnerships between private and non-profit sectors are emerging and as corporate responsibility gains momentum logistics companies have been offering their expertise. Through a partnership with the World Food Programme, TNT Logistics, part of TPG, the Dutch post and logistics group, is sharing its knowledge and experience with the WFP to help upgrade its logistics infrastructure.
TNT has, for example, developed a system for the World Food Programme for the transport and storage of the humanitarian supplies needed to support the more than 1m refugees who will return to Sudan over the next six years.
“The first estimates of the humanitarian sector are that [using the system] they can save around �300,000 ($395,000) a month amounting to �6m in total for the whole process,” says TPG's Ludo Oelrich, director of the programme.
Because of the vast differences between commercial and relief supply chains, however, the learning process is two-way. “They can come in, look at the way we work from their perspective and make some recommendations for efficiency improvements,” says Martin Bentley, logistics officer for the surface transport unit at the World Food Programme. “But often we meet them halfway, because there's certain reasons we do what we do, due to local conditions.”
But such partnerships are starting to catch on. In July, DHL and the International Federation signed a similar agreement through which the company will conduct research and develop supply-chain management tools.
Technology is a crucial tool. One system holding great promise for relief missions is the Humanitarian Logistics Software developed with the federation by the San Francisco-based Fritz Institute founded and run by Lynn Fritz, a logistics industry expert. The system tracks supplies from donation to delivery, giving organisations an online overview of the relief pipeline. Web-based supplier lists, details of pre-purchasing agreements and catalogues of items allow orders to be made online, rather than by phone or fax.
The federation has estimated that the technology could speed up delivery of relief supplies by between 20 per cent and 30 per cent. “And all this information is kept in a repository and provides a memory of what happened,” says Anisya Thomas, managing director of the Fritz Institute. “So following the disaster, you can look back and say what did and didn't work.”
Another software system, Suma, developed by the Pan American Health Organisation, also tracks donated items. Suma allows relief workers to categorise donations rapidly on arrival, manage warehouses and set up distribution priorities.
However, perhaps the greatest potential for enhanced efficiency lies in extremely low-tech systems. Colour-coding items red for foodstuffs, for example, and blue for clothing helps smooth the passage of supplies. And sending goods in packages of a size and weight that one person can handle is crucial, since unloading equipment may not be available at the receiving end.
For it is the receiving end “the last mile” that poses the greatest challenge for relief logisticians. Here, Peter Walker, now director of the Feinstein International Famine Center at Tufts University in the US, stresses the need to capitalise on local resources.
“Like any system of supply and demand, you have to figure out whether it's best to purchase locally or to bring stuff in. Some things, like blue plastic sheeting that you need in massive amounts in these disasters, are best to bring in internationally because it's prepacked,” says Mr Walker. “But when it comes to buckets and basins for people to store water in, those sort of things can be bought, if not locally, then in the country.”
Buying locally, says Mr Walker, “helps support the market, makes sure you've got the most appropriate goods and means you can get them quicker”.
In spite of the vast progress made in the past decade, experts say more could be done to enhance the efficiency of disaster supply chains. “There's a long way to go, and a lot of it has to do with the politics, insufficient resources and insufficient understanding that you need to prepare if you want to react,” says Luk Van Wassenhove, a professor at Insead business school who has studied disaster management.
Many organisations underestimate the strategic role of logistics and still focus efforts on fundraising and relief activities. “There's a need to recognise that the response, in the sort of situation we're in now, could be so much more effective if, between Bam [Iran's 2003 earthquake] and the tsunamis, we spent a year seeing how to improve for the next disaster,” says Ms Thomas.
Sadly, however, funding does not always allow for this, since many donors insist their money is spent directly on victims' needs rather than on developing back-room operations. As a result, says Prof Wassenhove, preparation and training between disasters is often neglected. “What you need is money to organise, not the money to deploy and that's what you don't get,” he says.
为海啸救援引入物流管理
筹集资金是容易完成的工作。被海啸摧毁的亚洲海岸画面频频出现在电视屏幕上，人们在震撼之余以创纪录的力度踊跃投入面向幸存者的赈灾捐赠。但在印度洋海啸灾难过后，全球最大一场援助行动展开之际，近年已得到改进的人道援助供应链管理面临着最严峻的考验之一。
在饥荒、战争或自然灾害时期，为人们运送食物、药品和栖身之所时遭遇的物流障碍，会使商业供应链管理看上去相对简单。首先，当地基础设施经常被毁，使运输机难以着陆、卡车难以开进受灾地区。在冲突区域，还可能会有判军设法阻断供应通道。
私人部门可以享受相对稳定的需求，援助机构则不同，它们面临各种突如其来的需求，这种需求发生的时间、地点和规模都无法预测。许多援助组织在全球各地的仓库中堆放着物品，但由于下一个事件的发生地无从确定，因此那些供应物资仍可能必须长途运送。
商业供应链是通过数量固定、地点已知的配送点来运作的，但援助机构几乎必须在一夜之间创立所有配送中心，而且常常是在困难的条件下。同时，由于不存在订货到交货的缓冲时间，因此援救机构要争分夺秒，以满足“顾客”的需求。对“顾客”来说，延误与否可能生死攸关。
此外，援助机构经常要与不需要的供应物资打交道，尤其是不适当或过期的药品。比如在厄立特里亚1989年独立战争时期收到的捐助中，有7卡车过期阿司匹林药片，花了6个月才焚毁。不合适的捐助如此常见，以至于援救团现在都会照例带上焚化炉前往受灾地区，以销毁可能具有危险性或正阻塞救援体系的物品。
这一切都与电脑制造商戴尔(Dell)等公司倡导的精简、即时的供应链运作大相径庭。然而，尽管就性质而言，救援行动与商业操作很不一样，但人道援助机构还是能从商业操作中学到有价值的经验。
例如，外包已进入人道援助领域。许多援助机构与供应商订立药品、帐篷、被单或毯子的预先采购协议。“认为灾难预备工作就是把仓库填满，这种旧观念正在消失，”国际红十字会与红新月协会联盟负责灾难与难民政策的前任理事彼得?沃克(Peter Walker)说，“问题不是储备物资，而是把你的供应链完备地部署到位。”
私人部门和非盈利部门间的伙伴关系正在涌现。随着企业责任感开始得到重视，物流公司开始提供它们的专业经验。荷兰邮政及物流集团TPG旗下的天地物流公司(TNT Logistics) 与世界粮食计划署(World Food Programme)建立了伙伴关系，与其分享知识与经验，帮助世粮署升级其物流基础设施。
例如，天地物流已为世粮署开发了一个系统，用于人道援助物资的运输和储藏。这些物资用来救助逾100万名难民，这些难民将在未来6年内返回苏丹。
“人道援助机构所作的最初估计是，使用这一系统后，它们每月能节省约30万欧元(合39.5万美元)，这样整个流程总共能节省600万欧元，”负责该项目的 TPG主管卢多?厄尔雷克(Ludo Oelrich)表示。
不过，由于商业供应链与救援供应链之间存在巨大差异，因此这种学习过程是双向的。“他们可以到我们这里来，从他们的角度观摩我们的运作方式，然后就如何提高效率提出一些建议，”世界粮食计划署海陆运输部门的物流官员马丁?本特利(Martin Bentley)说，“但我们往往不会照搬他们的建议，因为根据当地条件，我们做某些事是有一定道理的。”
但这种伙伴关系正开始普及。去年7月，敦豪(DHL)与国际红十字会与红新月协会联盟签署了一份类似协议，根据该协议，该公司将展开研究并开发供应链管理工具。
技术是至关重要的工具。有个系统为救援任务带来了巨大希望，那就是弗里茨研究所(Fritz Institute)与红十字会联盟合作开发的“人道救援物流软件”(Humanitarian Logistics Software)。弗里茨研究所总部位于旧金山，由物流业专家林恩?弗里茨(Lynn Fritz)创立并经营。这套系统在从捐助到交付的过程中全程跟踪供应物资，让人道援助机构在线监控救援传递过程。基于网络的供应商名单、预先采购协议的细节，以及物品目录使采购得以在线进行，而无需通过电话或传真。
红十字会联盟估计，这项技术可能使救援物资的交付速度加快20%至30%。“而且所有这些信息都被保存在一个储存库中，为发生的事提供了存储记录，”弗里茨研究所董事总经理安尼西娅?托马斯(Anisya Thomas)说，“因此在灾难之后，你可以回顾操作流程，并说出哪些起了作用，哪些不起作用。”
另一个软件系统Suma由泛美卫生组织(Pan American Health Organisation)开发，也能追踪捐献物品。通过Suma系统，救援人员可以在捐助物资抵达时将它们迅速分类，并管理库存，以及设定物资分发的优先顺序。
然而，也许技术含量极低的系统具有提高效率的最大潜力。把物品标上颜色编码有助于供应物资平稳流通，例如用红色代表食物，蓝色代表衣服。另外，在打包发送物品时，注意让包裹的大小和重量可由一个人应付，这非常重要，因为接收地也许没有卸载设备。
因为对救援物流人员构成最大挑战的，正是接收地这“最后一英里”。现任美国塔夫兹大学费恩斯坦国际饥荒研究中心(Feinstein International Famine Center)主任的彼得?沃克(Peter Walker)强调说，在这方面有必要利用当地资源。
“与任何供需系统一样，你必须搞清楚哪种做法最好：就地采购还是把东西带过来。有些东西最好从其它国家带进来，因为它是预先打包好的，例如这些灾难中大量需要的蓝色塑料膜，”沃克先生说，“但就桶或盆等供人盛水的器具而言，这种东西即使不能就地购买，也可以在所在国其他地方购买。”
沃克先生说，在当地采购“有助于支持那里的市场，确保你获得最合适的物品，而且意味着你可以较快拿到它们。”
专家们表示，在提高救灾供应链的效率方面，尽管10多年来已取得了巨大进步，但还有不少改进余地。“还有很长的路要走，其中许多与政治、资源不足和理解不充分有关。如果你想应对自如，你就必须做好准备，” 研究过灾害管理的欧洲商学院教授卢克?凡?沃森霍夫 (Luk Van Wassenhove)说。
许多组织低估了物流的战略地位，仍把力量集中在筹集资金和救援活动方面。“需要承认的是，就我们目前所处的这种形势而言，假若在2003年伊朗巴木(Bam)大地震和这场海啸之间，我们花一年的时间去研究如何改进预备工作，以备下一场灾难，那我们这次的反应就会有力得多，”托马斯女士说。
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但令人悲哀的是，资金并不总是允许这么做，因为很多捐助者坚持要求，它们的钱要直接用来满足受害者的需要，而不是用来发展后台运作体系。因此，沃森霍夫教授说，灾害之间的准备和培训经常被忽略。“你需要的不是用来部署的资金，而是用来组织安排的资金，但这正是你所没有的，”他说。
