Graduando

Key Performance Indicators in Humanitarian Logistics by Anne Leslie Davidson

Submitted to the Engineering Systems Division on May 19, 2006, in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Engineering in Logistics

Executive Summary
When disasters strike, relief organizations respond by delivering aid to those in need. Their supply chains must be both fast and agile, responding to sudden-onset disasters which may occur in cities such as New Orleans, or on the other side of the globe in places like rural Pakistan. Since 2004, two large-scale natural disasters have captured the attention of the international media: the 2004 tsunami and the 2005 earthquake in South Asia. Disasters of this magnitude cause donors, beneficiaries, and the media to closely monitor how quickly and efficiently relief organizations are able to respond. A disaster response operation involves trade-offs of speed, cost, and accuracy with regard to the type of goods that are delivered and their quantities. Balancing these trade-offs requires a means of measuring supply chain performance; however, the inability to centrally capture time and cost data related to the procurement and distribution of goods has prevented a systematic process of performance measurement from being implemented. Today in the logistics department of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), software that was co-developed with the Fritz Institute makes it possible to capture the necessary data which will inform the IFRC of their supply chain’s performance.
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This executive summary begins by examining the underlying principles of logistic performance measurement systems from the military and commercial sectors and applying them to disaster relief operations. These principles were used to develop four indicators which measure logistic performance in terms of the trade-offs of speed, cost and accuracy: appeal coverage, donation-to-delivery time,