Vehicle Routing Problem in Relief Supply under a Crisis Condition considering Blood Types

Abstract

Despite the advances achieved in Medical Sciences, no substitute has been found for blood as a vital factor. Therefore, preparing sufficient and healthy blood in crisis conditions is a challenge that health systems encounter. Along with examining the conducted investigations in this field, the main contribution of current research is to develop a biobjective Mixed-Integer Linear Programming (MILP) model for relief supply under crisis condition. For this purpose, this paper proposes a model for routing of bus blood receiver under crisis conditions considering different blood groups. Besides, hours of unnecessary travel by bloodmobiles (buses) between each blood station (BS) and the crisis-stricken city for dispatching the collected blood is prevented thanks to considering a helicopter. The mentioned model has two objectives: maximizing the amount of blood collected by bloodmobiles and minimizing the arrival time of the blood receiver buses and a helicopter to a crisis-stricken city after the collected blood is used up. The model is coded by CPLEX software, and the results obtained from solving the model indicate that, without considering a helicopter, the demand is not supplied within the critical period after crisis. Given that blood cannot be artificially produced, its primary resource is blood donors. Concerning the importance of this issue under crisis conditions, this research investigates the relief vehicles’ routing problem, including bus and helicopter, in a crisis considering supply and transfer of different blood groups to a crisis-stricken city for maximum relief supply and blood transfer within the shortest period.