This week’s topic is about planning and managing inventories
in a Supply Chain, but more specifically during uncertain times. Federal
Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is a good example of an organization with a
flexible supply chain, but is not perfect. It is their duty to provide
essential resources to any location after a disaster. The Logistics Supply Chain Management System
(LSCMS) is the technology they use to track resources and commodities for all
of FEMA’s distribution centers, in real time. After Hurricane Katrina, the
Katrina Reform Act was passed which allowed FEMA to prepare the resources
needed ahead of time in anticipation of a Presidential Declaration.
A complete cycle of the supply chain starts with The LSCMS
and ends with the resources in the hands of the survivor. The most important
aspect of their supply chain is the LSCMS, where resources are tracked at the
incident level, regional level, and headquarters level. If any of the
information is not logged or incorrect the chain is broken. Time is essential
in a state of emergency, and being able to accurately estimate the time it
takes for resources to reach the desired location is a life or death situation.
Shipment is the trickiest variable in their supply chain, as
environmental conditions are hard to predict and overcome.
FEMA uses past experiences from the Army Corps of Engineers and the
Defense Logistics Agency to model situations that can occur and the time frame
expected to move a resource.
FEMA has to deal with hundreds of variables in their supply
chain and has limited funding, which is why it will never be perfect. Most individuals
do not think about the response time of FEMA unless they are experiencing the
disaster. What do you think a good response time is during a natural disaster? If
FEMA were to establish a perfect, responsive supply chain, how much would it
cost the US government?
http://www.fema.gov/medialibrary/media_records/8048
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