Critical Success Factors for Information Technology Implementation in Humanitarian Supply Chain Management

Abstract

Natural disasters and unexpected events such as earthquakes, floods, storms, droughts and fires entail different parts of the world annually, and the lack of preparation and appropriate solution inflicts heavy casualties and losses on nations and their assets, which are sometimes irrecoverable. The fire and collapse of the Plasco building, in Tehran, the recent earthquake in Sar-e-Pul Zahab, in Kermanshah, was also a disaster that, in addition to heavy financial losses, has caused deaths and many worries about other old buildings and unforeseen incidents. In this regard, information is a key stimulus of the humanitarian supply chain, because, without proper and adequate information, a relief team cannot estimate the aspirations of the injured peoples. In this research, after reviewing the literature and interviews with managers and experts in the field of rescue and crisis management, 10 critical success factors of the use of information technology in human resource supply chain management were extracted. Then, the relationship between these factors was explained by interpretive structural modeling technique and factors were placed on 5 levels. In the following, using fuzzy DEMATEL technique, the severity of the relationship between the specified factors and a conceptual map (causal and causal relationships of factors) was proposed, in which 7 factors were identified as effective factors and 3 were identified as influential factors. According to the final results, "hiring of knowledge workers" as the most influential factor in the lowest level and "strategic planning" was recognized as the most influential factor in the highest level, which requires serious attention of the managers of rescue and relief and management of the country's crisis.

Keywords

• information technology
• critical success factors
• humanitarian supply chain management
• ism
• fuzzy dematel