Nevertheless, the lesson from the commercial world is that such preparatory work
really does reduce costs. Thus, supply networks and the location of warehouse and retail
outlets are carefully planned, and the spatial location and volumes of stock are equally
carefully modelled with the result that, even when there are major disruptions to the
network, business continues much as before. Indeed, in one sense the problem should be
significantly simpler in the humanitarian world as the number of stock keeping units
involved is significantly less – for example, the IFRC catalogue contains some
4,000 items compared with a typical supermarket inventory of 20-50,000 items (Fernie
and Sparks, 2004). On the other hand, of course, the challenge of accessing the location
of a disaster is immeasurably more difficult given the inevitable disruption to the
physical, communications and social infrastructure. However, as before, it is argued that
the tools and techniques (especially those drawn from theORworld) are readily available
and, indeed, as demonstrated in this Special Edition, are capable of being modified
to support NGOs in the preparation and execution of their humanitarian aid response.