Sustainable Operations and Humanitarian Supply Chains (ES99I-15)
Summary
The overall aim of the module is to explain the purpose and value of humanitarian organizations and supply chains within the society. Students will gain a deeper understanding of the similarities and differences between commercial and humanitarian operations by discussing the trade-offs in decision making through social and financial frames of reference. As a whole, this module sets out to provide a holistic strategic view of social enterprises through a comprehensive discussion of critical operational issues pertaining to performance, risk, strategy and sustainability.
Module aims
The overall aim of the module is to explain the purpose and value of humanitarian organizations and supply chains within the society. Students will gain a deeper understanding of the similarities and differences between commercial and humanitarian operations by discussing the trade-offs in decision making through social and financial frames of reference. As a whole, this module sets out to provide a holistic strategic view of social enterprises through a comprehensive discussion of critical operational issues pertaining to performance, risk, strategy and sustainability.
Outline syllabus
This is an indicative module outline only to give an indication of the sort of topics that may be covered. Actual sessions held may differ.
The module will consist of 5 days sessions. The module leader will attend all of each session, to integrate and stimulate the interdisciplinary learning.
The core design is that each day the module leader and subject specialists will choose how they wish to deliver a combination of discipline or application grounded material with activities that will allow the students (with the module leader) to develop their learning in an interdisciplinary style that will help them to explore and deepen their knowledge of that day’s theories and set texts/materials. Active learning methods (i.e. Team Based Learning; Open Space Learning) will be implemented in order to heighten student engagement and understanding of the week’s topic.
Day 1:
- Welcome and introduction to the Module.
- The basics of operations, logistics and supply chain management (L&SCM)
- What is humanitarian L&SCM? Defining humanitarian operations and supply chain management
- Similarities and differences across commercial and humanitarian operations
Day 2:
- Disaster versus on-going aid supply chains
- Performance objectives for SCM Relationships
- Stakeholder theory principles
- Guest Speaker: Mr. Rajiv Maher - Social Auditor of Supply Chain Sustainability – sustainability auditor of global supply chains of Nestle, Shell and Rio Tinto. He will discuss years of experience of auditing supply chains in Nigeria, China and Chile.
Day 3:
- Managing social enterprises and not-for-profits
- How do social enterprises create value: bricolage, networking
- Social vs. business frames of reference for decision making
- The measurement of social value
Day 4:
- 2 Guest Speakers:
Mr. T. Denskus: Social entrepreneurism in development, debates on 'DIY aid', volunteering/voluntourism and the changing nature of development.
Mr. R.J Wallace: Humanitarian Aid in Rwanda – will discuss his experience in disaster and on-going aid from a United Nations perspective. - Cross Case Discussions and Preparation for presentations
Day 5:
- Case Presentations: Rana Plaza Disaster, Haiti Humanitarian and On-going Aid, Rwanda Crisis; Doctors Without Borders; Ebola crisis
- Review of the module content and discussion on the exam
Learning outcomes
By the end of the module, students should be able to:
- Develop a comprehensive understanding of the operational functioning and value creation mechanisms of social enterprises and not-for-profit supply chains
- Discuss the similarities and differences between commercial and not for profit supply chains by comparing and contrasting decision making from a social frame of reference versus from a financial frame of reference.
- Analyse and identify the performance measures for a social enterprise’s theory of change components (inputs, activities, outputs, outcomes, and impacts)
- Analyse a humanitarian organizations utilizing operational models and frameworks to explain their core operations and supply chain processes, analyse their relationship with stakeholders with associated risks, strategies and challenges.
When:
Week 22
Commencing 27/02/23
Where:
R2.41 (Ramphal)
Dr Mehmet Chakkol
US Airforces drop approximately 14,000 bottles of water and 14,500 Ready to Eat meals on Jan. 23, 2010, to the outlying area of Port-au-Prince, Haiti following a magnitude 7 earthquake that hit the city on Jan. 12, 2010.