ADVANCE AID LINKS WITH CARDIFF BUSINESS SCHOOL ON AID LOGISTICS PROJECT
Advance Aid (AA) has been working with Dr David Taylor, Senior Research Fellow in the Logistics and Operations Management Department of Cardiff Business School (CBS) on a project to evaluate and then improve the supply chain for Non Food Items (NFIs) supplied to the victims of emergencies and disasters.
This is unique work that has never been attempted before and could have significant implications for the way that relief supplies are delivered in the future to the victims of disasters, wars and famine.
CBS is a leading centre for research in logistics and supply chain management in the UK, with a long and wide experience of evaluating supply systems in the commercial sector. AA has engaged with the Business School to carry out a thorough investigation into the supply chains of emergency relief materials into Africa.
The work is focused on Value Chain Analysis based around the ’Lean Thinking’ model pioneered by the Japanese car manufacturer Toyota and is aimed at establishing a number of Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) including cost, time, risk, social and environmental impact. These KPIs will enable the performance of different supply chains to be evaluated, compared and then improved.
The aim in the longer term is to develop a robust methodology for the monitoring and evaluation of emergency relief efforts.
The plan is to expand the scope of this initiative by partnering with a number of leading NGOs to look carefully at the current global supply chains with the goal of making significant improvements to current performance.
