Repeated failure of humanitarian
logistics for recent disasters in Japan
Dr.Prof. Makoto OKUMURA
International Research Institute ofDisaster Science (IRIDeS)TOHOKU UNIVERSITY

Message from the refugee fromKumamoto Earthquake (April,2016)

Characters made by chairs on the playground
April 17.
"SOS! Paper, Bread, Water needed"
Kokufu High School in Downtown Kumamoto
City (Kyodo.NP)

Characters written on parkingof a elderly care facility inMifune Kumamoto. April 17.
"Rice, Water, Preserve food,
HELP" (Kyodo.NP)

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Foods were not enough to reach all affectedpeople.
"Shortage" were reported through several Social
Network Service (SNS), e.g. facebook, LINE, ….
• Was there no water, foods in the affectedarea?
• To Increase the supply from outside ismeaningful in order to improve the situation?
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Kumamoto Earthquake (April 2016)

Plenty of goods arrived in front of Kumamoto Prefecture Office(April 19)

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Joso-city, Ibaraki
Kinugawa Rv. flood (Sep.2015)

Mitsukaido Gymnasium as a local distribution depot of supplies
Tokyo Shinbun Web News 2015.9.28

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Hiroshima Earth Slide（2014.8.20）

Report by a School Principal in Hiroshima
Really needed:
6High Pressure Cleaner, Sand bag kit

In reality…..
• In the GEJE and Tsunami (2011), relief goods delivery
system faced to difficulties such as, fuel shortage,stoppage of telecommunication and failed to provide
sufficient goods to the affected people.
• In more recent disasters, Hiroshima earth slide (2014),
Kinugawa flood(2015) and Kumamoto Earthquake(2016), relief goods delivery also failed even thoughtelecommunication and transportation did not stopped.
• It resulted in inflations of stocks in depots and delay ofdelivery.
• We can learn several measures to avoid such confusions
and delays in future disaster.
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Repeated Problem in Humanitarian
Logistics in Recent Disasters
Plenty of Goods were arrived into the affected area.
But those goods cannot be delivered well to eachplace.

“The last One Mile Problem”
Lack of manpower at distribution center
Lack of Information

Good-will Sending from outside without orders
specially expanded the confusion
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Logistics Flow until 2011 and after【External Area】

Orders（Factories Warehouses）

Goods Supply Facility

Transportation
type of cargo

National Cabinet Office
When prefectural
government is severelyaffected and lost functions,【Disaster Area】

Orders2) Prefecture Depot（unpack the large lot anddivide the destination）

When municipal
government is severely
affected and lost functions,
OrdersPull：Send goods based onorders

3) Municipal Depot（unpack the large lot anddivide the destination）

Refuge Camps, Shelters, Hospitals

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FINDINGS IN 2011 Earthquake• The damages of the earthquake and tsunami wereenormous. More than 470,000 people had to leave
their home and evacuate to shelters at more than
2,400 places.
• Relief goods delivery was planned to be executed
through two level depot; Prefectural Depot andMunicipal Depot.
• Especially in the first 2 weeks, fuel shortage made itvery difficult, deliveries more downstream thanPrefectural Depots.
• Stoppage of telecommunication expanded
mismatches between real needs and supplies.

10Logistics Flow at 2011 and after【External Area】

Orders（Factories Warehouses）

Goods Supply Facility

Transportation
type of cargo【Disaster Area】
1) Arranging Facility

Transportation
type of cargo

National Cabinet Office
When prefectural
government is severely
affected and lost functions,2) Prefecture Depot（unpack the large lot anddivide the destination）

When municipal
government is severely
affected and lost functions,3) Municipal Depot

Pull：Send goods based onorders（unpack the large lot anddivide the destination）

Refuge Camps, Shelters, Hospitals

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REPEATED PROBLEM
IN LOCAL AREA
(Transportation)【Roads in disaster area】（★ineffective transportation）
Road Infrastructure Damages
detours, congestions
Shortage of Vehicles, drivers
Shortage of fuel for local delivery

12Repeated Problem at Local Depot• Local government officials in theeconomic or industrial support branchof local government did not haveenough knowledge or experience ofthe logistic management.
• They simply try to store the arrived
goods in public building, and thespace was filled up soon.
• Building specifications, such as floor
strength, wide openings, continual
access from outside were poor andbecame critical points in depot
management.

Ill-organized inventory in a firstly
assigned depot(Iwaki Civic Hall on March 23)

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Improvement of Management ofLocal Depots• Good transportation access via
express way and large handling andstorage space under a roof areimportant (especially for the firstlevel Prefectural depot).
• Privately owned warehouses are
ideal if not damaged or
Well-organized inventory in a municipal
preoccupied.
depot with help of cargo-handling• Space below viewing stands, such equipment and professional support
as athletic field, horse race field,(Taira Bicycle Race Track at Iwaki City onApril 6)
indoor gymnastic arena wasconvenient.
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REPEATED PROBLEM
IN LOCAL DEPOTS【Depot in disaster area】（★ineffective Handling ）Handling by non-professional① No carrying instruments② No space for transport③ Naïve Place allocations④ Unclear signage

Handling by Professional transporters① Rolling boxes② Wide space and aisles③ Frequency based space allocation④ Signs and plates（By Prof. Kuwahara, Tohoku University）

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Logistic Flow in Kumamoto (2016)【External Area】

Orders（Factories Warehouses）

National Cabinet Office

Goods Supply Facility【Disaster Area】
1) Arranging Facility

Transportation
type of cargo

2) Prefecture Depot（unpack the large lot anddivide the destination）

Problems in many disasters

Push：Send goods withoutorders from disaster area

3) Municipal Depot（unpack the large lot anddivide the destination）

Estimation

Pull：Send goods based onorders

Refuge Camps, Shelters, Hospitals（Where more than 500 people are located）

They could not grasp the undesignated refuge.

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Push logistics plan
• In advance, it is helpful to build a database such as a predicted
number of victims, number of the elderly people and othersocio-economic features.
• Based on those prediction, we should make stockpile ofemergent basic living goods package of water, food andhousehold goods. (such as tableware, wrap, tissue, towel,
toothbrush, mask and blankets)

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INEFFICIENCY OF PUSH LOGISTICS• Local needs can easily change, bothquantitatively and qualitatively– We should permit MIS-MATCHs.
– We need not think that we should perfectlymanage.

• Give priority on speed, not on equality– Free takeout location is possible idea!

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FINDINGS in REPEATED FAILURE• Manpower shortage and insufficient building specification ofdepots are main cause of inflation of stocks in depots.
• Professional aids logistics specialists were effective to solve
the confusion in depots.
• Crucial reason of failure was in information flow, not in trafficflow.

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Relief Goods Delivery Systemand Information flow
In Japan, official delivery ofrelief goods had been under
the control of PrefecturalGovernor, before 2011.
He will respond to requests
from municipalities.
(request-based pull logistics)
Relief goods delivery wasplanned to be executed
through two level depot;
Prefectural Depot andMunicipal Depot.
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Difficulties in Transportation andInformation Exchanges
In the first several weeks, local(truck) transportationcompanies without their own
fuel storage, were severely
suffered with fuel shortage.
• Information exchanges were notpossible due to the local fuelshortage, electric power
blackout and breakdown of
telecommunication measures.
• Municipal government officials
could not capture local needs inthe affected area.

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Difficulties in Transportation andInformation Exchanges• Municipal government officials
could not capture local needs inthe affected area, even theexistence of undesignatedrefuge.
• Upstream Information from thebottom is strongly important• Local volunteers work as well as
volunteers from outside canstrengthen this information
gathering.
• Local people can take the last
mile transportation, also.

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Information from upstream• For a smooth operation of
distribution depots, it isnecessary to get information
about in what timing, what
goods and how much beingbrought in, in advance.
• In the normal time logistics, theadministrator obtain suchinformation from information
systems such as POS systems,
and arrange personnel andspace necessary on the basis ofthem.
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Information from upstream• Good-will sending (voluntary donation) goods
usually lacks "upstream information"• It may increase the confusion of the local
depots.
– Individual based donation should not be done ingoods but in money.

• Large lot size donation from industrial firm isstill welcome with corresponding information.
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LESSONS• Appropriate settings of depots, with enough supportof logistics professionals and cargo handlingequipment.
• Upstream Arrival Information at each depot is crucial
for planning storage location planning and othermanagements.
• Prior quantitative assessment of emergently required
goods based on regional demographic statistics tocope with “Push Delivery” in the first several days.
• It is important to use local people for informationacquisition and local last mile transportation.
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RECOMMENDATIONS• Public facilities, such as gymnasium, hall should be welldesigned with enough floor strength, wide openings, goodaccessibilities for cargo handling equipment, to cope withpossible use as logistics depot.
• Prior negotiations between public government and logistics
companies concerning on the condition and payments for
emergent assistance of logistics professionals, machines anduse of depot facilities.
• Predetermine the local governments partnership, which will
make cooperation in case of large scale disasters.
• Predetermine the standard format of shipments and orders,including the unified units of goods.
26Predetermined Inter-municipality
Partnership• Sufficient information transfer or analysis cannot beassumed within the affected region in case of large
scale disaster.
• Municipalities located outside the disaster area
should execute all information management for relief
logistics on the basis of pre-determined pairing.

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Basement of information sharing• Among national and local
government agencies, logistics
operators, providers of goods, etc.,
universal definition of items andcorresponding unit are needed to be
defined and shared.
• Standard order form, transportation
request form, cargo transportation
certification, should be prepared.

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Continuation of OrdinalCommercial Logistics• Qualitative mismatch occurs
in any system without individual orders.
– Qualitative matching is done in ordinal days throughcustomer's selections in shopping.
– Last mile problem is also solved through individual trip ofShopping.

• In Kumamoto case, 0.2 mil. people evacuated in
0.8mil. residents. The other inhabitants relied on theordinal commercial logistics.
• Continuity of ordinal commercial activities is stronglyimportant.

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Switch to the commercial business• Commercial business can more
efficiently correspond to thediversified and sophisticatedneeds of people.
• It is important to facilitate areturn to the commercial based
supply, from the distribution ofrelief supplies.
• Swift recovery of commercial
logistics is the first priority.
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Thank you for your attention!
Your questions and comments are welcome.

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