Requirements for relief distribution decision-making in humanitarian logistics

Abstract

Making efficient and effective decisions in the chaotic environment of humanitarian relief distribution (HRD) is challenging. Decision-makers need to concentrate on numerous decision factors categorized into decision objectives, variables, and constraints. Recent HRD literature focuses on optimizing procedures while neglecting the quantification of essential requirements (decision factors) for information systems to provide decision-making support. In this article, we address this gap by accumulating affecting decision factors from both literature and practice. We investigated the practical implications of these factors in HRD decision-making by measuring the preferences of a Delphi panel consisting of 23 humanitarian experts. The results from our study emphasize the importance of the decision factors in the proposed process model for HRD in a large-scale sudden onset. Our work provides researchers not only with a comprehensive set of practically feasible decision factors in HRD but also with an understanding of their influences and correlations.