Introduction
Logistics for humanitarian crises is quite unlike logistics for traditional military operations: in the case of natural disasters, there is frequently no warning or preparation time, leading to what Kress (2015, p. 141) calls a "gap of pain"; the number of casualties and fatalities may be higher than in those resulting from warfare; there is a serious presence of graft and theft and lack of internal controls (the 2010 UN presence in Haiti for example); finally, humanitarian operations requires sustained interaction with civilian agencies.
This post discusses some of problems encountered by leaders working in mixed military/civilian operations. We then discuss one proposed method of bettering military logistics: Total Asset Visibility. Finally, we discuss a more radical alternative for organizing humanitarian logistics.
Logistics, Operations, and Leadership for Humanitarian Operations
Logistics planning is difficult in humanitarian crises due to their unpredictable timing, varying durations, and wide variety of types of events. Further complicating the situation is that humanitarian crises can result from nearby wars. Because of these factors, a wide spectrum of agencies usually responds, including military forces, government agencies such as FEMA, and nongovernmental organizations like the International Committee of the Red Cross.
Because of the number of relief agencies involved, differing operational styles and protocols are to be expected. In the civilian world, emergency incidents of all sizes and levels are almost all managed using the Incident Command System (ICS). If one of the responding organizations, like the military, does not use ICS, then this could result in miscommunication between the military and the civilian organizations, and this would result in a less effective response.
Another source of contention is the different leadership styles used in civilian and military organizations: militaries are hierarchically organized, whereas civilian organizations require leaders to "herd cats." As described in Kress (2015, p. 143), "the strict hierarchical chain of command and the culture of discipline and obedience of orders that characterize the military are not always present in civilian organizations." The ICS addresses this "cat herding" by using what is called a "modular organization": the management hierarchy is flexible, expanding and contracting as needed; positions within the modular organization are created on an as-needed basis, and the hierarchy is created in a bottom-up manner.
Total Asset Visibility
Kress (2015, p. 101) describes the concepts of Total Asset Visibility (TAV) and In-Transit Visibility (ITV) as representing a possible feature of future military logistics. The idea of TAV and ITV is to use various technologies (RFID tagging, GPS tracking, and supporting information technologies) to gather near-real-time information about the location and status of all logistic assets, and to present this information to commanders and other relevant parties.
One advantage of a TAV system is that it would allow asset delivery using dispersed travel as opposed to convoy travel. According to Kress (2015, p. 185) a convoy is a long train of vehicles that travels as a unified entity, which can result in considerable delays at intersections. No vehicle is permitted to overtake another unless ordered. Stalled vehicles will slow down the rest of the convoy, which means that the speed of the convoy is limited to that of the slowest vehicle. This slower speed exposes the convoy to hostile activities for an extended period.
With dispersed travel, small groups of vehicles travel independent of other missions. Vehicles moving dispersed would have a higher average speed than convoys. The higher speed and smaller number of vehicles makes dispersed travel a less tempting target to enemies.
TAV would overcome two perceived weaknesses in dispersed travel: it would allow commanders to observe and control the location of assets; also, it would allow accumulation rates of logistic supplies to be easily predicted (Kress, 2015, p. 185).
There are several problems with TAV including the related problems of granularity and information-overloading. The granularity refers to the level of detail that inventory is to be tracked: do we track ammunition by the truckload, by the case, or by individual shell? Tracking inventory at the most granular level possible makes receiving, inventorying, and issuing a very time-consuming chore. Thus, while the time needed to move supplies from point to point would decrease with dispersed travel, that saved time could be lost due to the longer time spent on transferring ownership, which is what receiving, inventorying, and issuing are.
A second problem with TAV is the amount of information presented to a commander about the status of needed assets. A commander really doesn't need to know the location of a particular individual shell, and that information would be a distraction. This problem of information-overload can be solved, however, by the judicious presentation of data to the commander.
Information-overload is not an insurmountable problem. If the issue of TAV granularity can somehow be solved, or if TAV can be implemented only in a restricted manner, like for "last mile" delivery, then TAV will be a viable future tool for the military logistician.
Logistics Swarms
Swarms of arial drones or other physical agents can be applied to both military and humanitarian operations to solve the last mile problem. Unmanned Arial Drones (UAVs) have proven to be useful in combat operations in Ukraine, and it makes sense that UAVs can be used to deliver relief supplies. Thornton and Gallasech (2018) have considered usage of UAVs as replacements for air drops and crewed supply vehicles, finding that conventional delivery methods are expensive, do not necessarily deliver directly to desired locations and require equipment recovery. Small UAVs would avoid these problems, and in addition would shorten delivery time as they wouldn't need to raise to the higher altitudes required by conventional air drop systems.
Lai and Tseng (2022) have extended the idea of logistics-based swarming to include not only delivering supplies over the last mile, but along the entire logistics network. They further develop a method of placing logistic nodes based on system reliability considerations. Their work has all been theoretical, however.
A very successful real-world example of swarming for humanitarian relief operations has been displayed by the Cajun Navy. This is an informal group of volunteers that first emerged in 2005, rescuing thousands of people stranded in New Orleans by the floods caused by Hurricane Katrina. They have repeated their successes in rescuing flood victims in subsequent hurricanes and tropical storms, even as far away as Texas and Florida. In contrast to other civilian disaster response organizations, the Cajun Navy does not use the ICS in any significant manner (Ezor, 2020).
Conclusion
Humanitarian relief missions present unique challenges, primarily because both civilian and military organizations are involved. As can be expected, there are culture clashes – in particular clashes of leadership styles - but these clashes are mitigated through management systems such as the Incident Command System (ICS).
The importance of military and humanitarian operations means that they need to be constantly improved. Two methods for doing just that are Total Asset Visibility (TAV) and logistic swarms. TAV has yet to be realized in military organizations, but swarms of small UAVs or swarms of individuals rescuing flood victims show considerable potential.
References
Ezor, Z. (July 2020). "Calling forth" the Cajun Navy? Legal frameworks for ad hoc disaster relief. Center on Law, Ethics and National Security. Essay Series, Number 4. Duke Law. https://law.duke.edu/sites/default/files/centers/lens/Ezor_Cajun_Navy_Formatted_w_Cover.pdf
Kress, M. (2015). Operational logistics: The art and science of sustaining military operations, 2nd edition. Springer.
Lai, C-M and Tseng, M-L. (July 2022). "Designing a reliable hierarchical military logistic network using an improved simplified swarm optimization" Computers & Industrial Engineering, Volume 169, July 2022. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cie.2022.108153
Thornton, S. and Gallasech, G. E. (September 2018). “Swarming logistics for tactical last-mile delivery”. International Conference on Science and Innovation for Land Power 2018. Australian Government Department of Defense. https://www.dst.defence.gov.au/sites/default/files/basic_pages/documents/ICSILP18_IntSes-Thornton_Gallasch-Swarming_Logistics_for_Last-Mile_Logistics.pdf
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