The pre-positioning of warehouses at regional and local levels for a humanitarian relief organisation

Roh, Saeyeon ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1985-3754, Pettit, Stephen ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7265-4079, Harris, Irina ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0622-5123 and Beresford, Anthony ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5368-2752 2015. The pre-positioning of warehouses at regional and local levels for a humanitarian relief organisation. International Journal of Production Economics 170 (Part B) , pp. 616-628. 10.1016/j.ijpe.2015.01.015

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Abstract

Using pre-positioned warehouses at strategic locations around the world is an approach commonly taken by some humanitarian relief organisations to improve their capacities to deliver sufficient relief aid within a relatively short time frame, and to provide shelter and assistance to disaster victims. Although research into the facility location problem is extensive in both theory and application, such approaches have received little attention from the humanitarian relief perspective. In this paper we consider the pre-positioning of warehouses for humanitarian relief organisations from both macro (which country, which region) and micro (the immediate locality) perspectives, and analyse the managerial implications of those decisions. In Case Study A, managerial level officers were interviewed in order to obtain data for an analysis of the positioning of warehouses at a regional level. Case Study B identifies a specific location in the Dubai area where stakeholders from different organisations participated in both discussions and interviews. Through the use of the Analytic Hierarchy Process, the relative importance of individual criteria was determined. The fuzzy-TOPSIS method was used to obtain the final ranking of locations where linguistic values handle the vagueness and subjectivity of decisions. The contribution of this work is as follows: useful managerial insights and implications related to the pre-positioning of warehouses at both macro and micro levels are provided; further, a range of possible locations for a humanitarian relief organization, using a robust multicriteria decision making framework, is proposed.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Business (Including Economics)
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Warehouses pre-positioning; Humanitarian relief organisation; Multi-Criteria Decision Making
Additional Information:	PDF uploaded in accordance with publisher's policies at http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/romeo/issn/0925-5273/ (accessed 23.10.15). Available online 30 January 2015 This journal has an embargo period of 18 months
Publisher:	Elsevier
ISSN:	0925-5273
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	30 March 2016
Date of Acceptance:	20 January 2015
Last Modified:	10 Nov 2024 18:30
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/71420

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