Conceptual supernetwork model for coordination mechanisms in humanitarian relief chain

Motivated by growing number of natural disasters and emphasis on existing challenges and difficulties in humanitarian relief chain coordination, this study focuses on developing a conceptual model that incorporates three major coordination mechanisms based on supernetwork theory. These three major coordination mechanisms are categorized as procurement coordination mechanism, warehousing/inventory coordination mechanism and transportation coordination mechanism. A conceptual mathematical model is presented in this paper as well as a numerical example. Since financial efficiency is one of key performance indicators for humanitarian logistics, our objective is minimization of overall coordination costs to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of coordination mechanisms. The coordination cost is formulated as total cost associated with link flows for different types of products on each link consisted in the supernetwork. This supernetwork model that represents coordination and interactions among multiple relief organizations, suppliers, distribution centers and affected regions considers costs of acquiring, storing and transporting relief products and includes pre- and post- disaster phases in the relief operation.