Essential supplies (medicines, food, water, tents, etc.) to be built up in high lying areas close to regions which are forecasted to receive heavy rain using the proposed set covering model.

Design the three distinct afore mentioned chains to manage supplies of food, cranes and people.

Form an Incident Command System (ICS) to control the disaster response plan.

Build up fuzzy database containing the available human and material resources to effectively manage them and minimize the response time.

Inflatable rafts should be used to reach stranded people.

FM radios, Mobile communication can be used transmit warning messages and news about safe places and location of rescue supplies and routes to take if other communication lines are destroyed.

Results

We believe that if in addition to the existing systems the above mentioned supply chain oriented suggestions are put in to practice we may better counter the ill effects of Mumbai floods.

Conclusion

The paper describes a three phase approach highlighting supply chain processes in disaster management. In the first phase that is planning we describe a four step set covering model to design a multiple echelon supply chain used for locating emergency storage facilities which feed the existing critical locations. In the second phase (Response) we describe how the ICS, Fuzzy data base, Modern communication systems like GIS can supplement local resources and knowledge to quickly build a lean high quality effective supply chain. The third phase (Recovery) we touch up on the long term efforts required to return to normalcy.

This paper takes Mumbai floods case as a template to understand the role of supply chain in disaster management.

Concluded.

* Contributed by: -
Uday Sankar A. & S. Yogendra,
National Institute of Industrial Engineering, Mumbai.