A matheuristic for the pre-positioning of emergency supplies

Renata Turkeš, Kenneth Sörensen and Daniel Palhazi Cuervo

Working Papers from University of Antwerp, Faculty of Business and Economics

Abstract: In this paper, we describe the matheuristic we developed for the problem of pre-positioning emergency supplies that aims to increase disaster preparedness by making the relief items readily available to the people in need. To solve the pre-positioning problem is to develop a strategy that determines the location and size of storage facilities, the quantities of various types of emergency supplies stocked in each facility, and the distribution of the supplies to demand locations after an event, under uncertainty about demands, survival of pre-positioned supplies, and transportation network availability. The matheuristic employs iterated local search techniques to look for good location and inventory configurations, and uses CPLEX to optimize the aid distribution. Numerical experiments on a number of case studies and random instances demonstrate the effectiveness and efficiency of the matheuristic, which is shown to be particularly useful for tackling larger instances that are intractable for exact solvers. The matheuristic can therefore be used by both academics and practitioners to further study the pre-positioning problem and to support the planning of pre-positioning strategies.

Pages: 30 pages
Date: 2018-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-knm
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ant:wpaper:2018009

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