This book discusses emerging themes in the area of humanitarian logistics. It examines how humanitarian logistics and supply chains play a key role, focusing on rapidly delivering the correct amount of goods, people and monetary resources to the locations needed to achieve the success of relief efforts in response to global emergencies such as flood, earthquakes, wars etc. With an increase in the frequency, magnitude and impact of both natural and manmade disasters, effective delivery of humanitarian aid is an issue that is becoming increasingly important in the context of disaster management. The book focuses on how logistics systems and supply chains responsible for delivering this aid from origin to recipients can be made more effective and efficient. It also discusses how the development of information technology systems that can provide visibility to the disaster relief supply chain marks a huge step forward for the humanitarian sector as a whole. As more organizations begin to adopt and implement these systems and visibility is established, the use of key performance indicators will then become essential to further enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of these supply chains.

This book discusses emerging themes in the area of humanitarian logistics. It examines how humanitarian logistics and supply chains play a key role, focusing on rapidly delivering the correct amount of goods, people and monetary resources to the locations needed to achieve the success of relief efforts in response to global emergencies such as flood, earthquakes, wars etc. With an increase in the frequency, magnitude and impact of both natural and manmade disasters, effective delivery of humanitarian aid is an issue that is becoming increasingly important in the context of disaster management. The book focuses on how logistics systems and supply chains responsible for delivering this aid from origin to recipients can be made more effective and efficient. It also discusses how the development of information technology systems that can provide visibility to the disaster relief supply chain marks a huge step forward for the humanitarian sector as a whole. As more organizations begin to adopt and implement these systems and visibility is established, the use of key performance indicators will then become essential to further enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of these supply chains.

The manufacturing industry has been struggling to deal with difficult issues of achieving high customer satisfaction while maintaining cost competitiveness. As companies are preparing to make their mark globally, the need to improve supply chain efficiency is being given high priority. In future, competition shall no longer takes place between individual businesses, but between entire supply chains. The crux is in overall optimization of the value chain by aligning business strategy with the supply chain strategy. This book presents a spectrum of issues on existing supply chain systems including quality and information technology. A sizable portion of the book covers empirical assessment of contemporary supply chain practices and brings out some significant enablers of performance. The focus is on enhancing competitive potential through supply chain management practices. The book covers conceptual as well as application oriented topics. Thus, the articles are eminently suited and should appeal to industry practitioners, research scholars and students of supply chain management.