1.2
Exploring
logistics
competences
and capabilities
in not-for-profit
environments
The case of Médecins Sans Frontières
DIEGO VEGA
Neoma Business School and Cret-Log, France
The role of logistics as a source of competitive advantage for irms has been
largely studied in the strategic management literature. This is supported by
the idea that irms are a bundle of resources and, thus, irm-speciic logistics
resources and capabilities explain the differences in performance among
irms in the same industry. A context in which logistics has recently achieved
particular interest, due to its important contribution to the success of operations, is humanitarian relief. Over the past few years, the ield of humanitarian
logistics has witnessed great advances in both theory and practice. However,
the logistics competences and capabilities needed to ensure the success of
relief operations from an organizational perspective are seldom studied in
academic literature. This chapter addresses this issue by studying the case
of Doctors Without Borders, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), a medical
humanitarian organization that is widely recognized by its logistics excellence.
Based on a conceptual framework developed through an extensive academic
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21
literature review, semi-structured interviews and internal documentation
were analysed, exploring the logistics competences and capabilities found
at MSF. A set of capabilities were identiied as important for the success of
the operations, as well as a number of competences that result from the
combination of such capabilities. Based on these results, it is suggested that
for the case of MSF, logistics can be considered as both a core and a distinctive competence. Possible implications for the humanitarian community
are drawn and further research with a wider sample of non-governmental
organizations (NGOs) is encouraged.
Introduction
In the ever-growing body of knowledge of logistics and supply chain management, a lot has been written on the substantial role that logistics has in
achieving sustained competitive advantage (Porter, 1980). Numerous authors
argue that superior resources and skills contribute to sustained competitive
advantage (eg Day and Wensley, 1988). Others suggest that irms must combine their resources and skills into core competencies to achieve sustained
competitive advantage (eg Prahalad and Hamel, 1990). Over the past years,
a considerable amount of research in logistics has been dedicated to the
identiication and deinition of competences and capabilities, supporting
the idea that irm-speciic logistics resources and capabilities can explain the
differences in performance among irms in the same industry (Olavarrieta
and Ellinger, 1997). Recently, a context in which logistics has gained attention from both academia and practitioners is humanitarian relief, as almost
80 per cent of the activities undertaken are logistics-related (van Wassenhove,
2006). However, studies on the organizational logistics competences and
capabilities needed to ensure the success of humanitarian operations is
almost non-existent, although humanitarian organizations compete for fund
donors and emergency relief logistics is considered as a differentiator and
a competitive tool in the ‘crowded’ humanitarian sector (Oloruntuba and
Gray, 2006). This chapter addresses this point by exploring the organizational
logistics competences and capabilities needed to ensure the success of
humanitarian relief operations. The chapter is structured as follows. First,
the most prominent works on logistics competences and capabilities are
presented, as well as a short overview of the resource-based view (RBV),
constituting a theoretical framework. The research design section then
explains the methodological choices and the methods used to explore this
phenomenon. The indings from the empirical study are presented, before
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The Humanitarian Context
concluding with a short discussion on the implication of such indings for
both academia and practitioners.
Literature review
Over the past years, a considerable amount of research in logistics has been
dedicated to the identiication and deinition of competences or capabilities
in order to support the idea that logistics can be considered as a source of
sustained competitive advantage. However, indings show that research on
this issue is far from being stable, as the terms ‘logistics competences’ and
‘logistics capabilities’ are used interchangeably in literature (Morash, Dröge
and Vickery, 1996). The following sections review, based on logistics and
supply chain management (SCM) literature, the most prominent works on
these two streams of research, logistics competences and logistics capabilities,
and the relation of each of these two concepts with sustained competitive
advantage.
Logistics competences and capabilities
One of the irst works on logistics competence was conducted by the Global
Logistics Research Team at Michigan State University (MSUGLRT). The
research team proposed in 1995 a ‘World Class Logistics Competency Model’,
based on a study on how some of the world’s best-managed companies used
logistics to achieve competitive superiority (MSUGLRT, 1995). In the model,
each competency was conceptualized as being comprised of several functional
capabilities, which in combination create a competency. The study reported
some empirical evidence that world-class practices are correlated with better
logistics performance. This irst logistics competences framework was the
basis for an important number of studies all over the world. Based on
this framework, Stank and Lackey (1997) examined the relation between
capabilities and competencies and found integration and agility to be of
great importance to logistics performance. Later on, Anderson, Jerman and
Crum (1998) conducted a survey on the importance of quality management
practices in the achievement of operational results and customer satisfaction
with members of the American Society of Transportation and Logistics.
Results show a causal relationship between quality management factors and
logistics outcomes, speciically logistics operational performance and customer service. Daugherty, Stank and Ellinger (1998) conirmed the strong
link between logistics capabilities and customer satisfaction from a study that
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examined the relation between buyers and sellers in a business to business
(B2B) setting. Goldsby and Stank (2000) provided support to the relationship between the World Class Logistics Competency Model, and the implementation of environmentally responsible logistics practices. In Shang and
Sun’s (2004) work, the authors combined a resource-based view of the irm
and logistics and supply chain management to classify organizations in the
manufacturing industry in Taiwan, and conirmed that logistics can be regarded
as a key strategic source for acquiring sustained competitive advantage.
Shang and Marlow (2005) explored the relationship between performance
and logistics capabilities and found that information-based capability plays
an important role in the enhancement of the irms’ performance and the
facilitation of the irms’ other capabilities. More recently, in Shang and
Marlow’s 2007 work, four logistics competencies – namely integration and
knowledge competence, customer-focused logistics competence, measurement
competence and agility competence – were identiied based on a survey of
1,200 manufacturing irms in Taiwan, conirming the MSU’s framework.
Bowersox, Closs and Stank (1999) expanded the MSUGLRT (1995) study
and proposed the 21st-Century Logistics Model with six supply chain competences – namely customer integration, internal integration, relationship
integration, technology and planning integration, measurement integration
and supplier integration – and the ‘Supply Chain 2000 Framework’, which
identiies the competences essential to integrating supply chain logistics.
The authors conducted a survey of 306 senior North American logistics
executives in order to obtain information on the supply chain competences
and performance metrics. Results conirmed that the companies possessing
these key competencies experienced operational and inancial improvement.
In an attempt to substantiate the academic relevance of Bowersox, Closs and
Stank’s (1999) work, Stank, Keller and Closs (2001) showed that superior
logistics performance is a reward for high achievement on supply chain
logistics integration competencies and that customer integration is the most
critical competency associated with improved performance. Many authors
have applied this framework to international environments. Some of these
works include Carranza, Maltz and Antun (2002), who used this framework
to analyse the logistics strategy of Argentinian irms; Mollenkopf and
Dapiran (1999, 2005) who used it to benchmark logistics capabilities and
competencies in Australia and New Zealand; and Closs and Mollenkopf
(2004) who compare the data collected during the 21st-Century Logistics
Model with data collected by Mollenkopf and Dapiran (1999) in Australia
and New Zealand. Others studies emphasize either in one speciic logistics
competence (eg Richey, Daugherty and Roath, 2007), in logistics competence
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The Humanitarian Context
as a whole (eg Bolumole, Frankel and Naslund, 2007; Peko and Ahmed,
2011) or in logistics competency building (eg Li and Lin, 2006). Surprisingly,
no new models have been proposed or developed in recent years, mostly
because studies apply either one of the frameworks presented above, or
because they focus on a particular competence. Table 1.2.1 summarizes the
most prominent works on this literature. Each logistics competence framework is presented, including the main reference, denoted by an asterisk (*),
and the authors who carried out studies based on this framework. Subsequently, a list of the competences is presented as well as the capabilities
that compose such competence.
Table 1.2.1 Logistics competence frameworks
Framework
Authors
World-Class
Logistics
Competency
Model
Positioning
MSUGLRT (1995)*;
Anderson Daugherty,
Stank and Ellinger
Integration
(1998); Goldsby and
Stank (2000)
Shang and Sun (2004);
Shang and Marlow
(2005, 2007)
Agility
Stank and Lackey
(1997)
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Competences Capabilities
Strategy, supply chain,
network, organization
Supply chain unification,
information technology,
information sharing,
connectivity, standardization,
simplification, discipline
Relevancy, flexibility,
accommodation
Measurement
Functional assessment,
process assessment,
benchmarking
Positioning
Costumer focus,
organizational control,
organizational
implementation
Integration
Connectivity, functional
integration, information
sharing, IT, supplier relations
Agility
Operational flexibility,
personnel flexibility
Measurement
Activity-based costing,
benchmarking, performance
assessment
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Table 1.2.1 Continued
Framework
Authors
Competences Capabilities
21st-Century
Logistics
Model
Bowersox, Closs
and Stank (1999)*;
Mollenkopf and
Dapiran (1999, 2005);
Stank, Keller and
Closs (2001);
Carranza, Maltz and
Antun (2002); Closs
and Mollenkopf (2004)
Customer
integration
Segmental focus, relevancy,
responsiveness, flexibility
Internal
integration
Cross-functional unification,
standardization,
simplification, compliance,
structural adaptation
Relationship
integration
Role specificity, guidelines,
information sharing, gain/
risk sharing
Technology
and planning
integration
Information management,
internal communication,
connectivity, collaborative
forecasting and planning
Measurement
integration
Functional assessment,
activity-based and total cost
methodology,
comprehensive metrics,
financial impact
Supplier
integration
Strategic alignment,
operational fusion,
financial linkage,
supplier management
A capability can be deined as ‘complex bundles of individual skills, assets
and accumulated knowledge exercised through organizational processes
that enable irms to co-ordinate activities and make use of their resources’
(Olavarrieta and Ellinger, 1997: 563). An important amount of research on
strategic logistics is founded on the idea that logistics capabilities support
different value disciplines (Snow and Hrebiniak, 1980). Morash, Dröge
and Vickery (1996) present two main value disciplines, demand-oriented
or customer-oriented and supply-oriented, and the different capabilities that
compose these value disciplines. Based on a study on the perceived importance of strategic logistics capabilities for irm success, the actual implementation of such logistics capabilities, and measures of both irm performance
and irm performance relative to competitors conducted in the US furniture
industry, the authors found that delivery speed, reliability, responsiveness
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The Humanitarian Context
and low-cost distribution are the key logistics capabilities for sustained
competitive advantage.
Later, Gilmour’s (1999) work proposes a framework to evaluate supply
chain processes based on a set of capabilities, namely process capabilities,
technology capabilities and organization capabilities, which incorporate
the extent of integration and the use of associated technologies in the supply
chain processes of an organization, and the degree to which logistics is
used as a key element of overall strategy formulation and implementation.
The author performed a study on six Australian consumer product and
automobile manufacturers, inding that for the automotive industry, the
customer dialogue-driven supply chain capability results in a high differentiation on the market. As for the consumer product industry, integrated
information systems capability and integrated performance measurement
capability are the market differentiation facilitators. The framework provides a benchmark for measuring the match with the organization’s logistics
strategy and overall corporate strategy. Based on the MSUGLRT’s (1995)
study, Lynch, Keller and Ozmet (2000) divided logistics capabilities into
two groups, ie value-added service capabilities and process capabilities,
following the expert panel’s beliefs that some are more important for
achieving low costs, and others are more important for differentiation. The
study, conducted in the North American (ie Canada, Mexico and the United
States) retail grocery industry, showed a positive relationship between process
capabilities and a cost leadership strategy, while value-added service capabilities have a positive impact in an organization’s differentiation strategy.
Later, Zhao, Dröge and Stank (2001) use MSU’s framework to propose and
test a model of the relationships among customer-focused capabilities and
information-focused capabilities and irm performance. Based on senior logistics
or supply chain executives in each North American-based manufacturing,
wholesale/distributing and retail industry, a study conirmed that customerfocused capabilities are strongly related to irm performance. In 2004,
Mentzer, Min and Bobbit categorized logistics capabilities based on the
existing literature into four interfaces – namely demand management
interface capabilities, supply management interface capabilities, information
management capabilities and co-ordination capabilities – arguing that
logistics capabilities demonstrate a irm’s competitive advantage through the
management of stakeholder goals. The authors also recognize the important
role of logistics capabilities in boundary-spanning interfaces between internal
functional areas and between the focal irm and the supply chain partners.
Later, Esper, Fugate and Davis-Sramek (2007) reveal the most frequently discussed capabilities in the literature, including customer-focused capabilities,
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supply management capabilities, integration capabilities, measurement
capabilities, and information exchange capabilities. Recent developments
include the importance of logistics capability in the e-commerce market
(Cho, Ozment and Sink, 2008), the contribution of capabilities to the logistics
service providers’ competitiveness in China (Liu et al, 2010), the identiication of key logistics capabilities for international distribution centres (Lu
and Yang, 2010), and the role of logistics capabilities as a source for competitive advantage in Swedish retail companies (Sandberg and Abrahamsson,
2011), among others. However, as it is the case for logistics competence,
these recent studies do not include new insights but are rather conirmatory
of previous literature. Table 1.2.2 summarizes the capabilities found in the
literature (the capabilities are gathered by its focus or orientation, and no
work is considered as main reference).
Further, in logistics and SCM literature, lexibility appears simultaneously
as a competence (Fawcett, Cantalone and Smith, 1996) and a capability
(Bowersox, Closs and Stank, 1999; MSUGLRT, 1995; Mentzer, Min and
Table 1.2.2 Logistics capabilities gathered by orientation
Authors
Orientation/Focus Capabilities
Morash, Dröge and Demand-oriented
Vickery (1996)
Gilmour (1999)
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Pre-sale customer service,
post-sale customer service,
delivery speed, delivery reliability,
responsiveness to target markets
Supply-oriented
Widespread distribution
coverage, selective distribution
coverage, low total-cost
distribution
Process
Customer-driven supply chain,
efficient logistics, demand-driven
sales planning, lean
manufacturing, supplier
partnering, integrated supply
chain management
Information
technology
Integrated information systems,
advanced technology
Organization
Integrated performance
measurement, teamwork,
aligned organization structure
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Table 1.2.2 Continued
Authors
Orientation/Focus Capabilities
Lynch, Keller and
Ozmet (2000)
Process
Zhao, Dröge and
Stank (2001)
Customer-focused
Segmental focus, relevancy,
responsiveness, flexibility
Information-focused
Information sharing, IT
Mentzer, Min and
Bobbit (2004)
Value-added service
Demand management Flexibility, responsiveness
interface
Supply management
interface
Total-cost minimization,
efficient logistics processes
Information
management
IT, information sharing,
connectivity
Bobbit, 2004), showing a lack of conceptualization of competences and
capabilities in logistics literature. These and other discrepancies found in the
literature make relevant the need for a deeper analysis on the deinition of
competences and capabilities.
Resource-based view
From a historical point of view, the RBV is the result of Edith Penrose’s (1959)
seminal work, where the author presents the key principles of the approach
by considering that the irm’s resource ownership is what determines its
competitive advantage in comparison to others. The main postulates of the
RBV of the irm are that irms are a collection or a bundle of resources
(Penrose, 1959; Wernerfelt, 1984) and that its capacity to create sustainable
competitive advantage depends on its capacity to implement strategies that
exploit its internal strengths (Barney, 1991). Most works of this stream aim
to link resources with competitive advantage and to analyse the conditions
to ensure sustainability. However, during the evolution of this new theory of
the irm, a parallel stream was developed based on the concept of distinctive
competence (Selznick, 1957), to refer to those activities that a irm does better
in comparison with its competitors.
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The 1990s witnessed an important evolution in the ield, mostly inluenced
by the works of Prahalad and Hamel (1990), Hamel and Heene (1994) and
Sanchez and Heene (1997), setting the basis for competence-based management (CBM), a stream that postulates that competitive advantage is achieved
through the development and use of its capacity to deploy resources. The
strategic management literature offers an important number of deinitions
for both competence and capability concepts without achieving a consensus.
For instance, Foss (1996: 1) deines competence as ‘a typically idiosyncratic
knowledge capital that allows its holder to perform activities – in particular,
to solve problems – in certain ways, and typically do this more eficiently
than others’, while Sanchez and Heene (1997: 306) deine it as ‘an ability to
sustain co-ordinated deployments of resources in ways that help that organization to achieve its goals’. Further, Hitt and Ireland (1986: 402) add the
distinctive attribute to competence, deining it as ‘a irm’s ability to complete
an action in a manner superior to that of its competitors or to apply a skill
that competitors lack’, and Prahalad and Hamel (1990: 82) rather choose the
core attribute and deine it as ‘the combination of individual technologies
and production skills that underlie a company’s myriad product lines’.
From this overview, it is possible to say that the term ‘distinctive competence’
refers to activities that a irm performs better than its competitors, while
‘critical’ or ‘core competence’ encompasses technological and production
skills or expertise that enables the irm to implement a strategy. However,
none of the above deinitions include the relation with a irm’s capabilities,
a term that has been shown as to have direct relation with a irm’s resources.
A capability is deined as the capacity for a team of resources to perform
some task or activity (Grant, 1991), or a irm’s capacity to deploy resources
(Amit and Schoemaker, 1993). These differ from core competences in the
way that core competences, as presented earlier, emphasize technological
and production expertise at speciic points in the value chain, while capabilities are more broadly based, encompassing the entire value chain (Stalk,
Evans and Shulman, 1992). Another difference between competence and
capabilities relies on the fact that capabilities are the mechanisms and processes
by which new competencies are developed (Teece, Pisano and Shuen, 1997).
The above deinitions make clear that most authors agree that capabilities
refer to those skills, mechanisms, processes and knowledge that allow resources
to be deployed and, when combined, create competencies. When regarded
from a corporate perspective, competence refers to those functional areas,
critical activities or organizational processes that differentiate an organization
from its competitors, and through which the strategy of the organization is
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implemented. Both competencies and capabilities can be regarded as critical,
the degree of which will depend on its uniqueness, scarcity and dificulty to
imitate, and the amount of superior customer value that such competence
or capability can provide (Day, 1994). Finally, these two can be either core
or distinctive; ‘core’ refers to the central role of a irm’s value-generating
activities, while distinctiveness implies that customers can distinguish a irm
from its competitors.
Research design
In light of the existing literature and the discussion presented above, this
chapter was designed to explore the logistics competences and capabilities
needed to ensure the success of relief operations from an organizational
perspective. Previous studies on this topic in for-proit environments have
almost exclusively used quantitative methods, the survey being the preferred
one (eg Morash, Dröge and Vickery, 1996; Stank and Lackey, 1997; Lynch,
Keller and Ozmet, 2000; Closs and Mollenkopf, 2004). This conirms
Ellram’s (1996) observation that most empirical research in logistics that is
based on quantitative methods is still valid. However, as pointed out by
Halldorsson and Aastrup (2003), logistics as a discipline is experiencing
a movement towards more qualitative methods. For instance, case study
research has been used to investigate logistics competences and capabilities
when exploration and in-depth analysis were targeted (eg Esper, Fugate
and Davis-Sramek, 2007; Sandberg and Abrahamsson, 2011). This research
was exploratory in nature and aimed to investigate an under-researched
topic and, thus, the case study arose as a relevant research method given that
‘it provides depth and insight into a little-known phenomenon’ (Ellram,
1996: 97). Such is the case of logistics competences and capabilities for
humanitarian relief.
As stated by Meredith et al (1989), in order to better understand the
phenomenon the researcher should be as close as possible to the context
in which such phenomenon occurs. Therefore, the perspective of the actors
involved on humanitarian relief was chosen as the suitable type of information used for this chapter. Purposive sample procedures and multiple data
collection techniques (Eisenhardt, 1989; Yin, 2009) were used in the case
study of MSF undertaken in this chapter.
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Data collection and analysis
The case study in this chapter is based on an international humanitarian
organization that is known for its logistical excellence, and recognized
for its ‘pioneering humanitarian work on several continents’ (The Nobel
Foundation, 1999): Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). The case study protocol
and interview guide were built based on the previous literature review and
the input from the head ofice of one of MSF’s supply centres in Bordeaux,
France. A total of 27 semi-structured interviews were conducted in two
separate locations – MSF’s headquarters in Paris and the Bordeaux supply
centre – in a one-to-one setting following purposive sampling guidelines. The
diversity of the sample was ensured through different dimensions, including
job position (eg supply chain manager, production manager, procurement
manager, transportation manager, purchasing manager, technical advisor,
procurement oficer, freight operator, warehouse operator, ield logistics
supervisor), tenure (6 months to 12 years), ield experience (eg emergency
response, development programme, armed conlict, natural disaster), gender
and race. Each interview was audiotaped and lasted approximately 35–80
minutes, in which interviewees answered open-ended questions on the logistics competences and capabilities found at MSF. Interviewees were asked
to bring up examples from their ield experiences, searching for variety on
the units of analysis possibly found in a single case study (Yin, 2009). The semistructured interviews allowed new elements to be considered and further
investigated, avoiding researcher biases (Eisenhardt, 1989). In addition to
semi-structured interviews, internal documentation and direct observation,
as well as other informal exchanges (eg meetings, discussions, e-mails, etc)
were included as sources of information, ensuring data triangulation (Voss,
Tsikriktsis and Frohlich, 2002).
Shortly after each interview, a process of selective transcription (Ochs,
1979) was conducted in order to eliminate the ‘muddle in the middle’
(Lapadat, 2000). The elements related to the context in which the interview
took place were included in the process as ield notes. Following Ellram’s
(1996) data analysis process, a irst phase of ‘open coding’ was carried out
in order to identify, conceptualize and develop the irst categories of the
results based on the insights from the literature review. Further, an ‘axial
coding’ was performed to look for interactions between the results of the
open coding. Finally, a ‘selective coding’ was completed for validation and
further development of categories. The analysis of the data sources was
conducted with the help of QDAS NVivo 8.
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Research quality
The study followed Lincoln and Guba’s (1985) concept of trustworthiness,
aiming to respond to four criteria – namely credibility, transferability, dependability and conirmability. Credibility was ensured through a continuous
check of the researcher’s interpretations of the indings with the head ofice
and members of the organization. The use of multiple sources of evidence,
multiple informants and two different sites allowed the study to achieve a
high level of transferability. Dependability was accomplished through the
use of written protocols for data collection and analysis, and the use of the
QDAS for storage and systematic coding of the data. Finally, conirmability
was addressed through the examination and evaluation of the indings by
several scholars in previous versions of this research.
Overview of the organization
MSF is an international medical humanitarian organization that, for over
40 years, has provided assistance to populations in distress, to victims of
natural or man-made disasters and to victims of armed conlict. Today, MSF
provides aid in nearly 60 countries to people whose survival is threatened by
violence, negligence or catastrophe, primarily due to armed conlict, epidemics,
malnutrition and exclusion from health care or natural disasters. MSF is composed of ive operational centres (Amsterdam, Barcelona, Brussels, Geneva
and Paris) and 19 sections (Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark,
France, Germany, Greece, Holland, Hong Kong, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg,
Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United
States). In addition to this, MSF has two supply centres: MSF Supply (Belgium)
and MSF Logistique (France), which offer logistical support to the different
sections of the MSF movement and other NGOs such as Médecins Du
Monde and the International Committee of the Red Cross.
Results
The primary objective of MSF is to respond to emergencies and to mitigate
the suffering of populations at risk, through proper medical action reinforced
by appropriate logistics (MSF, 2014a). However, this objective cannot be
achieved without the help of other areas of expertise. The irst indings of
the case study revealed that in addition to logistics and medical know-how,
the organization’s experience in responding simultaneously to multiple
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emergencies was perceived as one of MSF’s strengths. However, not surprisingly, logistics appeared as one of the pillars to achieve this capacity.
Logistics competency at MSF
During the 1980s, in response to an increasing demand from the teams
in the ield, and the need to master a highly eficient supply chain made up
of a series of links, all of them crucial – purchasing, inventory, quality assurance and shipment – MSF set up a supply centre (MSFLog) whose raison d’être
is to provide missions with high-quality supplies, whether for emergency
situations or normal operations (MSF, 2014a). MSF’s supply mission involves
reliable and high-quality medical supplies (eg drugs and medical/surgical
equipment), non-medical supplies (eg vehicles, water tanks and food) and
transportation (timelines, insurance, etc). Over the past years, MSF has
achieved what is considered by its members to be a logistics competency,
gaining international recognition in this area, at the same level as that of
their medical expertise. As stated by the warehouse operations manager:
For MSF, logistics is the irst point that will contribute to the success of a good
response to an emergency... We could even deliver the material without having
a medical team in the ield and give this to other doctors different from MSF.
The importance of logistics at MSF is also attested by the growth of this
activity in the past years. From 2003 to 2014, MSFLog has almost doubled
the number of delivered parcels from 131,259 in 2003 to 253,771 in 2014.
This is the result of a strategic decision of expanding its warehousing capacity
from 5,000 to 10,000 square metres, and to develop three decentralized
warehouses (Dubai, Nairobi and Panama) to ensure the low management
from the different sections (MSF, 2010). This allows the organization to
increase its medical and logistics stocks, improving MSF’s capacity to respond
to multiple crises, in different parts of the world at the same time.
For instance, during the emergency response to the 2010 Haiti earthquake, 17 planes chartered by MSF helped in the delivery of equipment for
the implementation of an inlatable hospital on an athletic ield of 7,000
square metres in the irst six days after the crisis hit. At the end of the
irst month, the hospital consisted of 40 tents of which 13 were inlatable,
including a triage room, an emergency room, an observation room, three
operating rooms – including one reserved for osteosynthesis and clean
surgeries, a sterilization section, a recovery room, an intensive care unit,
several rooms of hospitalization, and a follow-up care and rehabilitation
section. A speciic burn treatment centre with its dedicated operating room
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was established in the third month of the intervention. In the words of the
head of supply chain:
We cannot be an emergency medical NGO with the level that we have without
logistics... if we hadn’t built this (MSFLog), we couldn’t have responded to
Haiti, it would be impossible!
Logistics for MSF is thus considered as the ultimate competence that allows
the organization to respond to humanitarian crises at the point that, given
this case, MSF is capable of supplying all the required material to assist the
populations in any scenario without sending their own medical teams to the
ield. This is only possible through the deep understanding of the logistical
processes and their transformation into capabilities and competences.
Between competences and capabilities
The MSF case study presents logistics as one of the pillars for the success of
their operations, and is considered as essential for the medical activity.
However, an important number of competences and capabilities are behind
the notoriety of logistics.
Technical capabilities
Within logistics competency, technical capabilities are considered as important for the success of MSF’s operations. This reputation is the result of a
process of professionalization of different activities throughout the supply
chain. These capabilities represent each métier that constitutes the logistics
of MSF. These include purchasing and procurement, supplier management,
stock management, transportation management, warehouse management,
order processing, operational lexibility, delivery and information management, among others. An example of this is provided by a freight operator,
who explains the crucial aspect of his work:
In the commercial environment, at the end you’ve got very few people who are
faced with the chartering of aircraft, because these are completely outsourced:
the forwarder subcontracts to the broker, the broker takes care of it, and so on.
We like to do it directly with the broker and as we have these capabilities at
MSF Logistique, and as we want to be sure that things are going well, we want
to be sure that the aircraft matches our criteria selection, we want to choose
the departure airport on the basis of price, we make a big analysis, we want
to know exactly where it is going to land, we want to know the crew... a lot
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of things that we pay attention to for an operational choice, the choice of this
company or not, and so on. As it’s not easy to ind these capabilities outside,
we develop them here!
Throughout its history, MSF has expanded its logistics system with the
functions required to ensure good medical practice. Today, the organization
beneits from an important internal cohesion of logistics activities that go
even beyond the borders the organization.
Integration competence
Logistics integration is crucial for the good unwinding of the operations.
As the quality manager at MSF Logistique stated:
The competence of a system is always superior to the addition of individual
competences, and [this] is especially true for MSF.
In order to ensure the delivery of the relief items requested by the teams
on the ield, without errors and within a limited period of time, MSF relies
on a set of capabilities that combined create a successful integration.
It all begins with the identiication of the need expressed by the teams of the
ield. Good-quality information allows the purchasers and supply oficers to
ind the speciic products that respond to those needs, while freight and
warehouse operators prepare what is necessary to smooth the transit between
the supplier and the ield. This internal integration is explained through the
role that information plays within the organization. The order-processing
manager explains:
It is mostly a co-ordination problem about how we communicate, how we
will be able to understand that the information I have, if I keep it to myself, is
useless, so it must be shared and shared quickly with maximum clarity, knowing
that the other does not understand what he is told so one must be sure that the
thing is understood and that the message went through.
In some cases, such integration goes beyond the organization limits and
reaches the suppliers, with whom the organization has built partnerships
that beneit the overall supply chain. The cold-chain referent explains:
In a moment we had a lot of cold-chain disruptions, and I made a set of
speciications for new packages that were very restrictive. I made a tender and
all suppliers told me ‘it’s too restrictive, it is useless’. Eventually, we worked
together with our long-time supplier, we developed new packaging and we went
from €100,000 of product destroyed in 2008 to less than €200 in 2010.
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The Humanitarian Context
MSF’s operational structure enables downstream external integration (to
some extent) with the organization’s irst customers, ie the teams on the
ield, while the relation with some of its suppliers enables upstream external
integration
Adaptability competence
For the year 2013, the operational portfolio was composed of 70 to 90 projects in 30 to 35 countries (MSF, 2014b). In some cases, a country’s situation
leads to constraints that make it dificult (or even impossible) to access
and therefore to supply the teams. In other cases, it is the nature of the
emergency and scale that can make it dificult to deliver. To deal with all
factors, the organization has developed a strong capacity to adapt to different contexts, types of emergency and requested volumes that generate
very different logistic choices. The stock manager explains:
For the Indian tsunami, it was several countries that were affected, in several
areas. For Haiti, we had to intervene and the focus was mainly on the capital
city at the beginning. It was much easier to manage than responding in several
countries (Indonesia, Sri Lanka, etc) but it was very complicated. In fact
[for the tsunami] we delivered, but we didn’t know the exact needs. In Haiti,
I think it was much more measured. Now, in Kurdistan it was rather the
extent... there were mountains illed with people, it was huge in terms of needs
and the response was great in volume. Items sent from MSF Logistique: plastic,
blankets... sometimes by plane; there was only one type of product, while in
Haiti there were 500 or 600 different products per shipment. It was not at
all the same logistics and it could not be apprehended in the same way.
Upstream, the supply of products from the supplier can also result in constraints to which MSF’s logistics must constantly adapt. Product quality is
the irst criterion for the choice of a supplier, while delivery time is very
important. In addition to this, the weight in the relationship with the supplier is not on MSF’s side although MSF is an international organization
recognized worldwide, and so the logistics must be able to perform its activity
by adapting to the constraints imposed by its suppliers. This competence
appears thus as multidimensional, with a irst ixed dimension that is the
humanitarian context to which MSF has adapted, a second dynamic dimension related to the constraints of countries in terms of clearance times and
even access, a third dynamic dimension linked to the complexity of the
ield, a fourth dynamic dimension as a result of medical claims, and inally,
a dynamic dimension upstream with the suppliers. In the words of the head
of supply chain:
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Logistics is like the top of a mountain. One side has all that is operational
(programme deinition, medical choices, etc) and the other side has the entire
industrial world with whom we are in contact, the commercial reality...
Normally, these two worlds do not know each other, and we [logistics] act as
a buffer between the requests from MSF and the reality of implementation.
To deal with these two ‘worlds’, MSF’s logistics relies on its technical capabilities that complement other organizational capabilities.
Responsiveness competence
Since its creation, MSF has been present in most of the greatest humanitarian
crises in history, bringing assistance to affected populations. Emergency
response, precisely to natural disasters, has been from the beginning at the
core of MSF’s work. What Rony Brauman, former president of MSF, considers
as ‘culture’ or ‘know-how’ of the emergency, is what is seen as the responsiveness competence within the organization, an ability to respond quickly
to any type of humanitarian crisis around the world, deploying different
types of resources (physical and human) belonging to different professions
(medical, logistics, water and sanitation, nutrition, construction, etc), by its
own means, and without having too much impact on the course of the
various programmes and projects. From high-media-coverage natural
disasters to silent crises, from armed conlict to nutritional crises, MSF has
shown that even with very limited access it is able to act and achieve its
goal: to provide medical assistance to populations whose life or health is
threatened. This capacity is achieved thanks to the responsiveness of the
logistics system, which appears as the most important logistics competence
within the organization. The procurement manager explains:
If there is an emergency and no one has in stock what it takes – it can be
48 hours or the next day – you have to manage to ind a supplier that will be
able to deliver in 24 hours. We did a lot of that for Haiti, because the freight
department reserved entire aircrafts, ‘full charters’ who were leaving. For
example, it was Monday and we had a ‘full’ that was leaving on Thursday,
so it had to be charged on Wednesday. Here, on some missing items that we did
not have in stock, we tried to negotiate with the supplier so that the products
were charged on the plane, one way or another. So here it depends a lot on the
supplier’s responsiveness, because if the same supplier makes us wait a half
day... For the procurement, [the media coverage] helped us a lot, because
many providers were engaged, saying ‘we want to do something for Haiti!’...
I saw a manager of a big pharmaceutical company putting products in his car
and taking them to DHL on Friday night.
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The Humanitarian Context
Currently, MSF supply centres are able to respond to emergencies in 24
hours, and less than four weeks to regular ield orders. Such lead times can
be considered ‘short’ within the constraints of the respective context. This
responsiveness competence is due mainly to the capacity developed by the
organization to prioritize emergencies.
Discussion and implications
At the end of this research, probably the most important result is that the
success of humanitarian relief operations is achieved through the organization’s capacity to manage its logistical processes through the development
of logistics capabilities and competences. This statement may not be
revelatory, as most academic literature on humanitarian logistics puts forth
the importance of logistics in humanitarian relief operations, but it constitutes
a irst attempt to show the link between logistics and the success of humanitarian operations through capabilities and competences, based on empirical
data. The importance given to logistics at Médecins Sans Frontières, considered
as a pillar for the success of their operations, let us think that from an
organizational perspective logistics for humanitarian relief can be considered
as a strategic function through which the overall strategy of an organization
can be drawn. For humanitarian organizations, and for the humanitarian
community at large, the evidence of logistics as the foundation of humanitarian operations’ success represents an opportunity for the development of
this activity towards a source for strategy. The MSF case study shows that
logistics has the potential to be a strategic tool for the achievement of the
organization’s goals, as is the case for many irms in the commercial sector.
If logistics is integrated in the overall strategy of humanitarian organizations, this activity could represent a cornerstone for interorganizational
humanitarian co-ordination, reducing the effort of international NGOs
when responding to emergencies and allowing a much more eficient resource
allocation to provide better support to continuous aid operations and
silent emergencies.
The case study results also presented a number of logistics competences
and capabilities, among which responsiveness, adaptability and integration,
as well as technical competences such as purchasing, procurement and transportation, were identiied as the most important competences and capabilities
for the organization. These results represent a small but substantial
contribution towards an organizational logistics competence and capability
model for humanitarian relief, a subject that is seldom found in academic
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39
literature. Moreover, the indings from the MSF case study provide a contribution to both logistics and SCM literature. The study of a context such as
humanitarian relief provides insights that partially conirm the capabilities
and competences found in most logistics competency models, but expands
the knowledge on this topic to include competences and capabilities that are
required in highly volatile environments and that can be used in industry.
Further research on this topic is strongly encouraged through the replication
of this study in other NGOs with similar characteristics (size, scope and
logistics), in order to reine the results and improve the logistics competence
and capability model.
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Acknowledgements
The author would like to acknowledge Médecins Sans Frontières (the French
NGO that accepted and supported this research work), and Professors
Nathalie Fabbe-Costes and Marianne Jahre for their comments on previous
versions of this research.
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