Inventory slack routing application in emergency logistics and relief distributions

Area of Science:

• Operations Research
• Disaster Management
• Logistics

Background:

• Recent disasters underscore the need for enhanced governmental preparedness for emergency events.
• The Inventory Slack Routing Problem (ISRP) is gaining attention for optimizing relief distribution.

Purpose of the Study:

• To formulate an optimization model for the ISRP that maximizes the minimum inventory slack across all dispensing sites.
• To develop efficient solution approaches for the ISRP, considering vehicle routing and relief allocation.

Main Methods:

• A two-stage approach was proposed to address the vehicle routing and relief allocation sub-problems.
• A novel objective function integrating delivery durations and dispensing rates was developed for vehicle route design.
• Hierarchical and sweep routing approaches were utilized in the first stage.

Main Results:

• The proposed model effectively maximizes minimum inventory slack, crucial for disaster response.
• The two-stage approach efficiently solves the complex relief distribution problem.
• Numerical experiments validated the ISRP's significance over traditional multi-vehicle TSP.

Conclusions:

• The proposed optimization model and solution methods offer a robust framework for improving emergency relief distribution.
• Addressing the ISRP enhances governmental preparedness and response capabilities during crises.
• The study highlights the importance of inventory slack in mitigating delivery delays caused by unforeseen factors.