Emergency relief supply chain design and trade-off analysis

Purpose – Emergency relief supply chain (ERSC) design is an important strategic decision that significantly affects the overall performance of emergency management activities. The performance of an ERSC can be measured by several performance measures some of which may conflict with each other. The purpose of this paper is to propose an ERSC design framework by simultaneously taking total logistics cost (TLC), risk level, and amount of demands covered in an ERSC into consideration. Design/methodology/approach – The study considers TLC of an ERSC as the sum of logistics cost from distribution warehouses (DWHs) to Break of Bulbs (BOBs) and from BOBs to affected neighborhoods. The risk level of an ERSC is measured by estimating the expected number of disrupted relief items (EDI) distributed from DWHs through BOBs to neighborhoods. The covered demand (CDM) is defined as total populations that are supported in case of an emergency, the populations within the maximal coverage distance (MCD) from relief facilities. Based on these performance measures, the authors formulate a Goal Programming (GP) model to distribute emergency relief items to affected locations. Ideal values of these performance measures are decided, and the GP model seeks to minimize the weighted sum of the percentage deviations of those performance measures from the ideal values. The relationships among performance measures have been thoroughly analyzed through detailed trade-off studies under two realistic case studies by changing weights of each performance measure. Findings – Three performance measures are interdependent over specific values of weights. TLC and EDI have a trade-off relationship when the weight on each measure increases. TLC and CDM also have a trade-off relationship when the weight on EDI increases. However, this relationship becomes less apparent when the MCD increases. EDI and CDM also have the same trade-off relationship when the weight on TLC changes. Therefore, decision makers should thoroughly analyze these trade-off relationships when they design ERSCs. Overall, the study identified that an ERSC with higher MCD outperforms one with lower MCD in terms of TLC, EDI, and CDM. Originality/value – The study presents a design framework to generate more balanced ERSCs by simultaneously taking three conflicting performance measures into consideration, and demonstrated the feasibility of the framework through realistic case studies. The trade-off analysis provides useful insights and theoretical knowledge to researchers and practitioners in the discipline of emergency logistics management. The results from this study are expected to contribute to the development of more balanced ERSCs.