Interview: James G. Featherstone Shares Views on Current State of Humanitarian Supply Chains

Editor's Note: When the “Humanitarian Supply Chain” panel convenes at USC's 7th Annual Global Supply Chain Excellence Summit in August, one of the more engaging speakers will be James G. Featherstone, executive director, of Pepperdine University's Homeland Security Advisory Council at the School of Public Policy (HSAC@SPP). In this exclusive interview, he shares insights on current state of the industry.

Supply Chain Management Review: What are the greatest challenges you are facing this year?

James G. Featherstone: At any moment in the greater Los Angeles region, we may experience one or more of the “Magnificent Seven,” which are either a crisis or will lead to a crisis.

• Pandemic
• Violent Actor(s)
• Catastrophic Earthquake
• Catastrophic Wildfire
• Cyber Attack
• Adverse Weather
• Large Public Assemblages

When these incidents occur, humanitarian logistics becomes a significant part of the response and the recovery. One of our greatest challenges is continuing to bring humanitarian logistics to the fore, especially when it comes to crisis logistics. With crisis logistics, we need to work more on increasing awareness of it, leveraging technology, and resolving the dilemma of the “last deliverable mile.”

SCMR: What kind of innovations are being employed to prevail over those challenges?

Featherstone: There is a large window of opportunity for humanitarian and crisis logisticians to better leverage technology on blue sky days, so we are comfortable with it and able to use it more strategically on grey sky days. At the Homeland Security Advisory Council at Pepperdine University's School of Public Policy (HSAC@SPP), through generous donations from the business sector, we have developed SALUS - The Crisis Hub®. SALUS is a web-based crisis and event management platform that puts the power of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) directly into the hands of crisis managers, public safety professionals, and policymakers. Through maps and hundreds of real-time data sets, SALUS empowers end users to make data-informed decisions, effectively manage resources, share information, and generate accurate situational awareness on blue sky days and grey sky days.

We are also developing a Virtual Business Operations Center (VBOC) model, which would facilitate logistical coordination, resource management, and information sharing between and among the public and private sectors during emergency and non-emergency operations. By evolving the Business Operations Center (BOC) concept into a virtual space, it becomes more accessible to all members of the private sector, which helps ensure FEMA's seven Community Lifeline Functions are represented. Ultimately, by leveraging the power of technology, the VBOC will increase whole-community resilience, enhance situational awareness, and improve continuity of operations.

Part of increasing awareness of humanitarian and crisis logistics includes involving the next generation of emergency managers in supply chain research and in developing solutions for supply chain issues. For the past four years, the City of Los Angeles' Emergency Management Department (EMD) has fully embraced the challenge of crisis logistics by partnering with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to conduct research and analysis on grocery supply chains, which they will continue with food, fuel, and pharma. This project not only gained national recognition, but also gave EMD Interns the opportunity to learn about supply chain resilience. Here at HSAC, we always have at least two of our graduate Interns working on supply chain research and analysis to strengthen the region. As crisis managers, we can be prisoners of our own experience. By involving Interns in the research and analysis, we benefit from their fresh, unbiased, innovative perspectives on the issues.

SCMR: How are you promoting your efforts and getting the word out?

Featherstone: We give SALUS to our government partners (city departments, jurisdictions, etc.) free of charge. Because SALUS is technology built for the end-user and designed to fit within existing workflows, the demand for it continues to increase exponentially—largely from word-of-mouth. On August 1st, we merged with Pepperdine University's School of Public Policy, which increases both of our reaches and visibility in the region and nationally. This partnership will also enable us to further our supply chain research.

SCMR: How can humanitarian logistics attract new talent to the discipline?

Featherstone: One way of attracting new talent is by embracing technology, which shows the field is both innovative and relevant. Bringing humanitarian and crisis logistics into existing emergency management degree programs at all levels, as well as non-emergency management programs, would go a long way towards introducing more individuals to the field.

For want of a nail, the race is lost. In crisis logistics, we tend to look at the end of the race when we should also look at the start: What are the demand nodes or signals of cascading events that led to people desperately needing food, for example? To do this, we need to bring all sectors to the table for logistics orientated exercises. These exercises would focus on making sure we are sending the right amounts of the right things at the right time, keeping in mind the long-term and short-term upstream effects.

By bringing the private sector into emergency operations, both in our tabletop exercises and in VBOCs, we will be able to familiarize all sectors and all levels within each organization with logistics. This is also a great way to bring new individuals into the field with their fresh perspectives.

SCMR: What kind of humanitarian crisis are you concerned about in the future?

Featherstone: Regardless of the triggering event, urbanization compounds the threat of natural and man-made risks and hazards. The UN estimates that by 2050, 68% of the world's population will live in urban areas. That is an additional 2.5 billion people. This increases the size, scope, and complexity of our response and recovery efforts. Now, we have a larger, much more dense population with more critical infrastructure, which presents even greater risks to the public and private sectors. The effects increased urbanization will have on humanitarian supply chains can be catastrophic.

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