Application of Industry 4.0 technologies for effective coordination in humanitarian supply chains: a strategic approach

The coordination in post-disaster functions is a major challenge for the humanitarian supply chains. Due to uncertainty and temporary nature of the disasters, it becomes very difficult to ensure coordination among the aid organizations engaged in the humanitarian supply chain. The increasing incidents of the natural, technological and man-made disasters have attracted the attention of the researchers, governmental and non-governmental actors. Most of the disasters are not under the control of the human being. Some of the man-made disasters also create a huge loss of the human lives with damages to the public and private properties due to some social and political causes. From literature, it is observed that the technologies of Industry 4.0 may help in improving the coordination among stakeholders of the commercial supply chains but the application of industry 4.0 technologies in humanitarian relief chains is not well explored. Therefore, the present study has bridged the existing research gaps by exploring the application of Industry 4.0 technologies for improving the coordination in humanitarian supply chains. A hybrid approach comprising of Analytic Hierarchy Process and ELECTRE has been used to propose a strategic approach for mapping the measures of coordination with critical success factors. Findings of the study will help stakeholders of humanitarian supply chains in implementing Industry 4.0 technologies across different functions for prompt service and accurate decision making.