Designing an integrated relief pre-positioning network with perishable commodities

In this paper, a bi-objective model is proposed for designing a pre-positioning network of pharmaceutical supplies considering their limited shelf-life. The presented model aims to consider both cost efficiency and responsiveness by minimization of total cost and the maximum amount of unmet demand under uncertainties in demand and supply sides’ data. Moreover, for effective distribution of relief supplies in the post-disaster phase, multiple coverage levels are incorporated. The bi-objective model is solved by the well- known 8-constraint method and some numerical experiments are developed to explore the applicability of the presented model. The results indicate the impact of considering perishability of the pharmaceutical supplies as well as considering multiple coverage levels for satisfying demand on the total cost and responsiveness of the relief network.

Keywords:

Pharmaceutical supplies , Relief pre-positioning network , Multiple coverage levels , Perishability