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Relief Supply Chains

Relief supply chains involve delivery basic and essential commodities to the victims at the right place in the lowest time. In this context, the relief supply chain includes commercial supply chain activities such as planning, forecasting, procurement, logistics, warehousing and delivery. Apart from these, activities such as appeal to donors and resource mobilization also need to be carried out for relief purposes.

Commercial Supply Chain vs Relief Supply Chain

A comparison between the commercial chains and a relief chains brings out the points of correlation and differences between the two types of supply chains. Typically, Relief supply chains are characterized by -

Commercial and Relief supply chains are mainly differentiated by the supply chain flow. Figure 2 represents the two supply chains vis-à-vis Physical Flow of goods, Flow of finances, and flow of information. It is evident that relief chains lack flow of information between the customer and the organization. Moreover, donors provide financial and physical support to the organization.

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* Contributed by: -
G. Vamsee Chandra,
IIM, Lucknow.