XSEED: Distribution Centre Operations during the Kerala Floods

In August 2018, many regions in the state of Kerala, India, were experiencing rising flood waters, and people were being evacuated from flood-prone areas to relief camps. Various relief camp supplies in the state were being distributed through the distribution centre at Rajiv Gandhi Indoor Stadium in Kochi. XSEED, a student community-driven organization of the Xavier Institute of Management and Entrepreneurship, was being coordinated by faculty member Dr. Mercia Justin. Justin, entrusted with the responsibility of managing the operations at the distribution centre, was carefully considering how to manage the throughput of the relief camp supplies and streamline operations at the distribution centre as the volume of shipments rapidly expanded and the rain and flooding situation worsened.

This case is suitable for a graduate-level course on operations management or supply chain management. After working through the case and assignment questions, students will be able to<ul><li>understand the concept of distribution centre (DC) operations in the context of humanitarian operations;</li><li>analyse critical activities (sorting, binning, kitting, etc.) at a DC and identify process bottlenecks encountered during humanitarian operations;</li><li>understand material flow and labour constraints in a DC and how to manage bottlenecks;</li><li>design the layout and perform space allocation for a DC operating at full capacity;</li><li>design systems and internal operations within an expanding DC under information uncertainty and resource constraints during disaster management scenarios;</li><li>analyse supply chain agility and resilience during humanitarian operations and weigh in on dimensions of agility and resilience and their influence on operational competencies;</li><li>demonstrate an understanding of the human factors that influence humanitarian operations in a semi-structured environment involving multiple teams and organizations; and</li><li>optimize throughput levels at a DC during humanitarian operations and crisis scenarios.</li></ul>

• crossdock operations
• warehousing
• distribution center operations
• supply chain management
• humanitarian operations