Latest News

  • Delta Unveils MOOVair 30 kW Wireless Charging System for e-Forklifts for Next-Generation Logistics
  • Businesses are set to invest over their annual warehousing costs into automation to boost productivity
  •  Warehousing: Could mobile robots offer a way through the skills shortage?
  • PelletBag: replacing plastic with paper
  • CKF delivers the right ingredients for sweet success
  • Home
  • News
  • Materials Handling
  • Health & Safety
  • Notice Board
  • Multimedia
    • Audio
    • Book Review
    • T.V.
    • Video
  • Contact Us
  • About Us
  • follow
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Google+
    • Pinterest
    • RSS Feed
    • Linked
    • Youtube

Multimodal ’14; Smart thinking meets ever greater humanitarian need

May 03, 2014 Warehousing Ireland News Comments Off on Multimodal ’14; Smart thinking meets ever greater humanitarian need


The instinct to help those in need is as old as humanity itself, but the stakes are higher than ever before. The aid industry has been forced to go global in response to a doubling in the number of people affected by humanitarian crises in the last decade.
Mike Whiting, senior logistics consultant for the World Food Programme (WFP), chairing a seminar on humanitarian logistics on the opening day of the Multimodal exhibition in Birmingham yesterday, said aid costs increased by 430% between 2004, the year of the Indian Ocean tsunami, and 2013. Last year, 50% of those facing humanitarian need were in conflict-affected areas, up from 25% 10 years ago.

No fewer than four countries – Syria, the Philippines, South Sudan and the Central African Republic – had faced maximum “level three” crises last year. Whiting said: “The system is having to deal with problems of increasing scale and complexity, which has profound implications. We need to find a more locally based, anticipatory approach – a more creative way of dealing with the logistics challenge that faces us.”

Whiting, who is also chairman of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (CILT)’s Humanitarian and Emergency Logistics Professionals Forum (HELP), said the Institute could be a catalyst for change. “We must listen to what those in peril want, not impose what we think they need.”

There was a potential payback for those putting resources into improving the situation on the ground. “If we enable aid, we enable trade,” Whiting said.

Dorothea de Carvalho, CILT’s professional development project director, said people development was critical. More than 1,000 students had now passed through the Institute’s certified qualification programme in humanitarian logistics, developed in association with organisations such as WFP, Save The Children, the Red Cross, Oxfam and Unicef.

Logistics professionals can study for a humanitarian supply chain management qualification, while a specialist medical logistics practices strand (Medlog) is suitable for doctors or nurses needing to understand “the unique requirements of running a cold chain,” de Carvalho said.

She invited companies to sponsor students or offer work placements for programme graduates, which would enable them to benchmark their work against what was happening in the commercial sector.

Martijn Blansjaar, head of logistics and supply, for Oxfam’s International Division, said airline offers of cargo space in their aircraft had become fashionable in the 1990s, only to result in aid supplies failing to fly because the paperwork was not right.

Oxfam now benefited from “fantastic long-term arrangements” with JCB, which regularly supplied digging and lifting equipment, and British Airways, which could usually offer free capacity within days of a crisis developing, Blansjaar said.

Chris Weeks, director of humanitarian affairs at DHL, said the company was helping disaster preparedness by helping airports in high-risk areas to be ready for a surge in incoming air freight.

The trick is to act smarter, Week said. He contrasted the “old world” model of sending bottles of water, with today’s focus on purification units and jerrycans. Instead of “dump and run” shipments of unwanted food and clothes that could paralyse an airport, equipment and palletised freight was now shipped out.

“Disaster response is becoming more professional and coordinated. We’ve got to upskill and change the profile of our employees,” Weeks said. “The private sector needs to work more closely with other actors and donors such as governments and NGOs.”

Whiting concluded: “We can’t go on as we were, transformative logistics is needed. Training people in storage and distribution will control the amount of food wasted between harvest and end user. We have to go from tonnage-based to knowledge-based operations.”

He quoted an example from Tanzania, where at one time cola was obtainable everywhere but not essential drugs. Following a collaboration between Coca-Cola and the Ministry of Health, medical supplies were now more efficiently distributed across the whole country. “Thinking more sustainably and helping people to help themselves can save a huge amount of long-term investment,” he said.

This year’s Multimodal is the biggest in the show’s seven year history, with over 280 exhibitors and thousands of visitors on its first day.

Tweet

  • tweet
Flexi go Continental! Three steps to warehouse efficiency heaven

Warehousing Ireland

Related articles
  • Delta Unveils MOOVair 30 kW Wireless Charging System for e-Forklifts for Next-Generation Logistics
    Delta Unveils MOOVair 30 kW Wireless...

    Jun 05, 2023 Comments Off on Delta Unveils MOOVair 30 kW Wireless Charging System for e-Forklifts for Next-Generation Logistics

  • Businesses are set to invest over their annual warehousing costs into automation to boost productivity
    Businesses are set to invest over their...

    Jun 05, 2023 Comments Off on Businesses are set to invest over their annual warehousing costs into automation to boost productivity

  •  Warehousing: Could mobile robots offer a way through the skills shortage?
     Warehousing: Could mobile robots...

    Jun 05, 2023 Comments Off on  Warehousing: Could mobile robots offer a way through the skills shortage?

More in this category
  • Delta Unveils MOOVair 30 kW Wireless Charging System for e-Forklifts for Next-Generation Logistics
    Delta Unveils MOOVair 30 kW Wireless...

    Jun 05, 2023 Comments Off on Delta Unveils MOOVair 30 kW Wireless Charging System for e-Forklifts for Next-Generation Logistics

  • Businesses are set to invest over their annual warehousing costs into automation to boost productivity
    Businesses are set to invest over their...

    Jun 05, 2023 Comments Off on Businesses are set to invest over their annual warehousing costs into automation to boost productivity

  •  Warehousing: Could mobile robots offer a way through the skills shortage?
     Warehousing: Could mobile robots...

    Jun 05, 2023 Comments Off on  Warehousing: Could mobile robots offer a way through the skills shortage?


Tweets by @warehousingIrl

Recent Posts

Trelleborg Wheel Systems joins The Yokohama Rubber Co., Ltd. operating as “Yokohama TWS

Trelleborg Wheel Systems joins The Yokohama Rubber Co., Ltd. operating as...

May 05, 2023 Comments Off on Trelleborg Wheel Systems joins The Yokohama Rubber Co., Ltd. operating as “Yokohama TWS

Following last year’s announcement, Trelleborg Wheel Systems is pleased to announce the acquisition by The Yokohama Rubber Co., Ltd. has been successfully completed for 2,074 million...
UKWA National Conference: Why Digitalisation & Automation are Tools for Tough Times

UKWA National Conference: Why Digitalisation...

Feb 25, 2023 Comments Off on UKWA National Conference: Why Digitalisation & Automation are Tools for Tough Times

New guidelines for high-quality paper carrier bags

New guidelines for high-quality paper carrier

Feb 12, 2023 Comments Off on New guidelines for high-quality paper carrier bags

Forklift market rebound causes gap between order intakes and shipments

Forklift market rebound causes gap between order...

Nov 24, 2021 Comments Off on Forklift market rebound causes gap between order intakes and shipments

The new Visuclean vinyl from Beaverswood

The new Visuclean vinyl from Beaverswood

May 01, 2021 Comments Off on The new Visuclean vinyl from Beaverswood

Recent Posts

Beaverswood has hazards and restricted area marking safely taped

Beaverswood has hazards and restricted area marking safely taped

Nov 05, 2022 Comments Off on Beaverswood has hazards and restricted area marking safely taped

Quick and effective highlighting of hazards and restricted areas in industrial premises and offices is provided by yellow/black self-adhesive marking tape, now available from workplace...
RHA launches tail lift safety guidance

RHA launches tail lift safety guidance

May 15, 2021 Comments Off on RHA launches tail lift safety guidance

Axial Properties Ltd fined €80,000 following serious incident in Clonee warehouse

Axial Properties Ltd fined €80,000 following...

Nov 22, 2020 Comments Off on Axial Properties Ltd fined €80,000 following serious incident in Clonee warehouse

New Modulean Lite shadow boards from Beaverswood

New Modulean Lite shadow boards from Beaverswood

Nov 14, 2020 Comments Off on New Modulean Lite shadow boards from Beaverswood

How to safely buy a used ATEX forklift

How to safely buy a used ATEX forklift

Jul 12, 2020 Comments Off on How to safely buy a used ATEX forklift

Newsletter

Recent Posts

  • Delta Unveils MOOVair 30 kW Wireless Charging System for e-Forklifts for Next-Generation Logistics
  • Businesses are set to invest over their annual warehousing costs into automation to boost productivity
  •  Warehousing: Could mobile robots offer a way through the skills shortage?
  • PelletBag: replacing plastic with paper
  • CKF delivers the right ingredients for sweet success
  • Garbe Industrial Real Estate expands logistics parks in Germany
  • Case Study: Mayoral – High performance fashion logistics  
  • MiTek to exhibit at Tomorrow’s Warehouse event
  • Why is Quality Management so important when it comes to warehouse space? 
  • KAUP Expands its e-op Range – available via B&B Attachments
  • DHL Supply Chain extends partnership with Locus Robotics for autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) supply
  • Clark low-lift truck with operator stand-on platform now also with Li-Ion technology
  • Trelleborg Wheel Systems joins The Yokohama Rubber Co., Ltd. operating as “Yokohama TWS
  • Finalists announced for UKWA Excellence Awards 2023
  • Toyota introduce 3 brand-new stand-in warehouse trucks built around lithium-ion batteries
Copyright 2020 Warehousing Ireland / All rights reserved