A Simulation Model for Short and Long Term Humanitarian Supply Chain Operations Management

Traditionally, the design of supply chains for humanitarian operations has been developed distinctly for the different disaster management phases, with little attention to the relief to development continuum. For the immediate response phase, this design has an emphasis on speed, whereas for the reconstruction phase, it has an emphasis on cost reduction. In this paper, we develop a sustainable humanitarian supply chain network for the relief-to-development continuum. Hence, this network ensures an effective and smooth transition from response to reconstruction operations. We develop three network structures that integrate the lean and agile principles to different extents. To determine the best characteristics of such a sustainable supply chain, we use discrete event simulation modeling. We validate and compare each network structure through several scenarios fed by data sets available from the United Nations World Food Programme for operations conducted in the Republic of Congo.