Hurricane Maria Supply Chain Management

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Prior to Hurricane Maria, the healthcare system within Puerto Rico was already undersupplied and understaffed. Hospitals were pressured by Hurricane Irma just two weeks prior, and failed to secure critical supplies, backup generators, and manpower before Hurricane Maria hit. In addition, hospitals lacked backup communication, which limited their ability to communicate with other hospitals and medical relief, such as the Navy hospital ship that could have relieved some of their demand. This failure to recognize the fragile health care system, and proper use of risk mitigation tactics to prepare before the storm only heightened the medical pressures after the storm. Finally, the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA) that ran the island's …show more content…

While the circumstances of Maria were unique, due to Puerto Rico's location and political standing, there were still many basic supply chain tactics that could have been used to make relief more efficient and effective. An example of the impact a poor supply chain decision can have is evident by the fact there were 10,000 cargo ships filled with critical supplies that were left in port, while the people on the island struggled with no form of communication (Gillespie et al., 2017). In the end, using supply chain management practices such as emphasizing communication, understanding a system's weakness, and employing risk mitigation tactics early on could have drastically changed the relief efforts impact, and potentially decreased the $90 billion cost the storm was estimated to have …show more content…

In other words, after conducting risk assessment and communicating with various stakeholders, it is important to follow through with the plans while carrying communication and flexibility throughout. The lack of such response preparation can be seen post Maria and Katrina, while P&G and Walmart had stronger preparation that helped them be successful. In the case of Maria, for example, the issue of 10,000 shipping containers worth of supplies stuck at the San Juan port was exacerbated by people’s unwillingness to take action. Since there was no previous preparation or communication when the issue formed, people pointed fingers and waited for the next person to make the decisions rather than troubleshooting themselves. This can be seen on an even wider scale within Katrina. Due to FEMA’s lack of logistical processes in place, when the storm hit, there was limited preparation in terms of resource allocation. This led FEMA to continuously make mistakes without accountability, which led to relief that was increasingly being delayed. However, P&G and Walmart stuck to their plans even in the face of extreme uncertainty. This led to P&G increasing their market share post Katrina, and Walmart being the first stores to reopen and provide critical support for local communities. The success of both company reliefs was also due to their flexibility. For

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