Penilaian Logistik pada Saat Bencana

Penting bagi setiap organisasi atau lembaga kemanuasian untuk mempertahankan bahkan meningkatkan kapasitas mereka dalam merespon pada saat bencana atau masa darurat bencana secara efektif dan tepat waktu. Biasanya, sesaat setelah terjadinya bencana (untuk bencana yang terjadinya secara mendadak) atau sesaat sebelum terjadinya bencana (untuk bencana yang diprediksi akan segera terjadi), organisasi atau lembaga kemanusiaan tersebut akan megirimkan tim penilai ke lokasi atau titik bencana, dan sangat penting untuk melibatkan atau mengikutsertakan seorang petugas logistik di dalam tim penilai agar dapat memahami bagaiamana layanan logistik akan diberikan atau dipakai.
Secara keseluruhan tujuan dari penilaian logistik adalah untuk memastikan bahwa pengaturan yang tepat dan memadai dibuat untuk merespon secara tepat waktu, efektif dan sesuai dengan kebutuhan masyarakat yang terkena dampak.

Strategi peniliain biasanya dibuat untuk mejawab enam pertanyaan seperti di bawah ini:
1. Siapa – orang yang terkena dampak bencana
2. Di mana – lokasi orang yang terkena dampak bencana
3. Apa – barang bantuan apa yang sangat dibutuhkan
4. Kapan – barang bantuan tersebut harus dikirimkan / diterima oleh penerima bantuan
5. Berapa banyak – jumlah barang bantuan yang dibutuhkan
6. Bagaimana – inilah bagian logistik – bagaimana mengirimkan barang bantuan tersebut sampai ke penerima bantuan, dalam hal ini kita berbicara mengenai transportasi, juga mengenai pergudangan, bagaimana menangani/handle barang tersebut, kemasan, komunikasi dan aktifitas pendukung lainnya.

Berdasarkan enam poin di atas, kita bisa melihat bahwa bagian terpenting dari penilaian logistik saat bencana adalah untuk mengidentifikasi dampak pada infrastruktur transportasi serta infrastruktur sumber daya lainnya, misalnya bandara, pelabuhan laut atau pelabuhan sungai, jalan, jembatan, kapasitas truk lokal, sewa kendaraan, gudang, listrik dan informasi pendukung lainnya.

Penilaian logistik juga harus menyoroti kendala-kendala yang ada seperti kepadatan yang terjadi di bandara, prosedur bea cukai, masalah buruh dll.
Penilaian logistik selama masa darurat bencana akan tergantung pada skala bencana. Namun, biasanya, siklus penilaian akan meliputi:
1. Mengidentifikasi informasi apa saja yang dibutuhkan dan dari mana sumbernya
2. Mengumpulkan data dan informasi
3. Menganalisis dan menginterpretasikan data
4. Menyimpulkan dan membuat perencanaan untuk respon logistik
5. Mendesain dan memodifikasi rencana respon/tanggap darurat.

Logistics Assessment during Emergency

It is important that the humanitarian agencies sustain their capacity to respond in an effective and timely manner when disasters / emergencies occur. Normally, agencies will send their assessment team to go to the disaster sites and it is very important to include logistician to conduct logistics assessment in order to understand how the logistics services are to be provided.

The overall objective of the logistics assessment is to ensure that appropriate and adequate arrangements are made to respond in a timely, effective and appropriate manner to the needs of the affected people.

The strategy of the assessment normally made in order to answer six questions:

1. Who – who are the beneficiaries or affected people
2. Where – location of the beneficiaries or affected people
3. What – identifies most urgent needs or prioritization
4. When – when the relief items is needed or to be delivered
5. How many – total quantity of relief items needed or required
6. How – this is logistics part – how the relief items will deliver / send to the beneficiaries – this will talk about transport, warehouse, handling, packaging as well as communications and other supporting activities.

Based on the above, we could see that the most important part of the logistics assessment during disaster is to identify impact on the transport infrastructure as well as resource infrastructure, e.g. airport, sea port or river port, roads, bridges, local trucking capacity, vehicle rent, warehouses, electricity and other supporting information.

The assessment should also highlight any special concerns, for example airport congestion, customs clearance procedures, labor issues etc.

Logistics assessment during emergency will be depending on the circumstances or depend on the scale of the disaster. Normally, assessment cycle will include:

1. Identify information needs and sources
2. Collect data and information
3. Analyze and interpret data
4. Conclusion including provide logistics response plan
5. Design or modify the response

Procurement >> Preliminary

We have seen five basic components of SCM previously, i.e. plan – source/supply – make/production – deliver – reverse.

These five components cannot be separated. A simple example is if we have a necklace. Of course that necklace has to be in good form in order for us to use it. If one part, e.g. the hooks are damaged then we need to fix so we can use it again. Maybe there will be a slight defect or the looks will not as good as before. And maybe at first we only had the money to buy a silver necklace, but after a while we’ve got enough money to buy a gold necklace. We will take care of that gold necklace properly because it is valuable goods.

Above example is same with SCM, each component is unity and should be managed properly to achieve value / profit as per the goals, it has to be sustained and improved.

Back to procurement, for most ordinary people, procurement is same with purchasing. But actually both are different. Below we can see what the difference between procurement and purchasing:

Procurement: the complete process for acquiring goods or services from external party or supplier. Procurement covers all process from the beginning until the end to obtain goods or services. It includes identifications of goods or services as per requirement, market survey or assessment, obtain sampling based on the required specifications, tender process until award for the winner, make a contract, ordering includes logistics arrangement (transport & warehouse if necessary), monitoring and make performance evaluation of the supplier. Almost same with logistics missions, procurement is acquiring goods or services in the right quantity & quality, at the right time & place and from the right source at the right price.

Purchasing: the specific activity of committing expenditure (money or equivalent) and tends to focus on the price rather than others. We can also say that purchasing is a part of procurement and more for administrative aspects. There are several companies set their own standard for purchasing, it can vary greatly between companies.

Going forward we will discuss steps in the procurement process.

Warehouse >> Preliminary

Warehouse is one of the main components of logistics. I think we all know very well that the warehouse is a place to store goods or equipment. Maybe at home we also have a room that we called “warehouse or storage”, usually we put various unused goods or equipment/goods that are rarely used in that room.

So in general, warehouse is a place to store goods or equipment. Warehouses are used by almost all stake holders in the supply chain, such as supplier, manufacturer, distributor, transport companies etc. Even in the government offices/compound, usually they have one room or building dedicated as warehouse/storage.

Roughly speaking we can say that anyone can manage the warehouse, but in reality it is not easy being as a warehouse caretaker. Many factors must be considered and the warehouse should be run by people who understand how to manage it properly and they should responsible for that warehouse.

The simplest example is the warehouse/storage at our house. If the cleanliness of the warehouse is not properly managed then it would have a lot of mice or other termites. Also the warehouse should get enough sunlight and air to avoid moisture.

Warehouses for commercial purposes usually a large building where raw materials or manufactured goods are stored, located in industrial areas or in the port areas or in one compound with factory or in same location with business/offices areas. Sometimes this type of warehouse is designed for the loading and unloading of goods directly from airport or seaport.

Businessman or managers will decide the type of warehouse and whether it has to be built or can be rented based on their requirement.

Important consideration includes questions:

1. What we will store and do we need special treatment like refrigerator
2. How much space we will need
3. How should we handle and organize the goods / materials

Later we will discuss how to make a good warehouse management system.

Transport

In principal the missions of logistics are:

1.  Getting the right goods,
2.  at the right time,
3.  with the right quantity,
4.  in the good quality,
5.  with a reasonable price.

Transport is the main component to achieve above missions. Good management is necessary to be able to make an efficient transportation system at an affordable cost. Managing the transportation is often complex due to the many variables that must be taken into account. Several factors are often overlooked when we arrange transport such as the political, social and economic condition in one region or country. Sometimes political decisions regarding transportation infrastructure often determine transportation routes and modes. As well as socio-economic condition could determine routes and security.

In general, there are four key process of transportation management:

1. Planning.

This process will define the most efficient transport mode according with the consideration of important parameters such as cost, type of the goods includes packaging and how to handle it, destination, expected time of arrival, avoid transit as much as possible to ensure quality, socio-economic-political situations in every area to be traversed, etc.

2. Decision-making.

This stage is the execution of the transport plan.

3. Follow-up.

Following any physical or administrative operation regarding transportation, such as the traceability event by event, Customs arrangements, need to send transport alerts (delay, unexpected stops, accidents, etc), bills to pay and so on.

4. Measurement.

Transporter performance and all condition during the transport events needs to be evaluated and the indicators of performance should be made in the planning stage.

Below are the transport modes:

1. Transport by air.

This kind of mode takes place mainly using cargo operators, e.g. couriers like UPS or Federal Express which usually carry parcels.

2. Transport by road.

Generally this mode of transport takes place by truck. Two important terms are FTL (Full Truck Load) and LTL (Less Truck Load). Primary transport vehicles usually send the goods to the warehouses. Secondary transport vehicles usually pick up customer orders for delivery, for example small box car from UPS or FedEx.

3. Transport by rail.

This mode of transport offers a low cost alternative for shipping products and usually not really focused on the speed factor.

4. Transport by sea / water.

This mode of transport offers another good alternative for shipping products which not really requiring speedy shipping. Transport by sea including bulk carriers and container vessels.  Containers often used for the delivery of food products to / from abroad.

This time we will only see outline for the modes of transportation, in the future we will see more details because each mode of transport has their own characteristics.

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What is Logistics ?

Logistics for the most of people means food or other materials needed for everyday purposes or other purposes. This kind of thinking exactly same as mine 13 years ago when I became a Logistics staff … my background is Industrial Engineering so I was “blind” about logistics.

I think Wikipedia has a pretty good explanation about Logistics. Let us see the explanation as follows:

Logistics is the art and science, goods, energy, information, and other resources, such as products, services, and people, from the source of production to the market with the aim of optimizing the use of capital. Manufacturing and marketing will be difficult to do without the logistical support. Logistics also includes the integration of information, transportation, inventory, warehousing, reverse logistics and packaging.

Based on the above understanding, the logistics mission is “getting the right goods, at the right time, the right amount, the right conditions, at an affordable cost, while still contributing to the profit of logistics service providers”.

Therefore, logistics is always struggling in finding a balance for 2 things very difficult for the synergized, with costs as low as possible but still maintain the level of service quality and customer satisfaction. In the ever-changing business world, good logistics management is a must.

Logistics word comes from the Greek logos (λόγος) meaning “ratio, word, calculation, reason, speech, oration”. The word logistics has its origin from the French word for loger is lodged or provide. Origin usefulness was to explain the science of the movement, supply and maintenance of military forces in the field. Later it was used to describe the management of the flow of goods in an organization, from raw materials into finished goods.

Logistics is considered to have evolved from the concept that the military needs to meet their inventory when they went to war from headquarters. In the Greek empire, Roman and Byzantine ancient, there are military officers with the title of ‘Logistikas’, which is responsible for distribution and inventory financing the war.

Oxford English Dictionary described logistics as “the branch of military science relating to procuring, maintaining and transporting materiel, personnel and facilities.” Other definition is “the time-related positioning of resources.” Therefore, logistics is commonly seen as a branch of engineering that generally make the “human system” rather than “machine systems”.

If I try to explain briefly above explanation from Wikipedia, it can be said that logistics is the management of the flow from one place to another. There are still a lot of explanation about what is logistics from experts and specialists, but I think the explanation from Wikipedia has been able to describe the outline of logistics. Going forward we will discuss more deeply about what is logistics.

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