World Food Programme Uses Logistics Visibility to Deliver Relief

The World Food Programme (WFP) has successfully deployed a global logistics visibility platform to better manage the organization’s vast network of food deliveries around the world. The platform went live in 2009 and is now operational globally.

Part of the United Nations and headquartered in Rome, Italy, the WFP operates in 78 countries and employs over 12,000. Each year, the WFP ships over 4 million tons of relief supplies to where it is needed most. The organization supports populations suffering from famines, conflicts and emergencies like natural disasters.

“We run a complex global supply chain that needs to be highly agile and nimble, capable of delivering the right mix of supplies to very remote and inaccessible locations,” says Stephen Cahill, head of operations at the World Food Programme. “Cargo visibility is the cornerstone to running an agile network and GT Nexus is central to our strategy.”

“When the WFP approached us about helping them out, we decided to make the platform available at no cost,” says Andy Stinnes, managing director of GT Nexus Europe. “While they feed millions of people every day, they also must rapidly shift into emergency relief mode when disaster strikes. The visibility and control we provide makes them more nimble and responsive to their customers, those who are in need.”

“Each emergency is unique and has its own constraints and WFP works closely with other UN agencies to identify the specific needs and requirements,” adds Cahill. “Different populations all have their traditional diets which we try to respect. In addition, if there is not access to clean water then rice is not an option. And, if there is no fuel we must rule out food that requires long cooking times.”

The GT Nexus platform provides status of shipments in real time, and also pushes information to stakeholders through exceptions and alerts. Historical data in GT Nexus can be used to adjust plans or plan for different scenarios. The entire platform is provided in the cloud, over the Internet. The partner network and applications are hosted and managed by GT Nexus.

Source: http://logisticstoday.com/