Coordination quality index: a metric for measuring the quality of coordination efforts in humanitarian supply chain

The effectiveness of the coordination practice has a direct consequence on the performance of humanitarian supply chain operations and it becomes imperative for the managers to quantify the effectiveness of the coordination activities. This study aims to provide humanitarian agencies with a tool to measure effectiveness of its coordination strategies. Coordination quality index (CQI) is introduced as an aggregate measure of the degree of implementation of various coordination practices carried out. Furthermore, the application of the proposed methodology is demonstrated in the setting of Chennai flood relief activities. The results indicate that the overall quality score obtained for coordination during the Chennai floods was moderate to low. The major reason for the poor coordination was due to poor information sharing, large diversity of actors and lack of streamlined organisational mandates. It also found that, though there were efforts to improve coordination, the expected benefits of these activities were not achieved.