A new scheduling method based on sequential time windows developed to distribute first-aid medicine for emergency logistics following an earthquake

PLoS One. 2021 Feb 23;16(2):e0247566. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0247566. eCollection 2021.

Abstract

After an earthquake, affected areas have insufficient medicinal supplies, thereby necessitating substantial distribution of first-aid medicine from other supply centers. To make a proper distribution schedule, we considered the timing of supply and demand. In the present study, a "sequential time window" is used to describe the time to generate of supply and demand and the time of supply delivery. Then, considering the sequential time window, we proposed two multiobjective scheduling models with the consideration of demand uncertainty; two multiobjective stochastic programming models were also proposed to solve the scheduling models. Moreover, this paper describes a simulation that was performed based on a first-aid medicine distribution problem during a Wenchuan earthquake response. The simulation results show that the methodologies proposed in this paper provide effective schedules for the distribution of first-aid medicine. The developed distribution schedule enables some supplies in the former time windows to be used in latter time windows. This schedule increases the utility of limited stocks and avoids the risk that all the supplies are used in the short-term, leaving no supplies for long-term use.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Computer Simulation*
  • Earthquakes*
  • Emergencies*
  • Emergency Service, Hospital
  • First Aid / methods*
  • Humans
  • Personnel Staffing and Scheduling*
  • Time Factors

Grants and funding

This work is supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Zhejiang Province (CN) (by YY, Grant No. LY20G010009 and by HYP, Grant No. Y17G030052), http://www.zjnsf.gov.cn/; National Key R&D Plan of China(by HPH, Grant No. 2016YFC0803207), https://service.most.gov.cn/; YY,JQF, Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 71601146) http://www.nsfc.gov.cn/; Humanities and Social Sciences Foundation of Ministry of Education of China (by HYP, Grant No. 17YJC630109), https://www.sinoss.net/. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.