A Mathematical Model for Scheduling and Assignment of Customers in Hospital Waste Collection Routes

Abstract

The collection, transport, and final disposal of hospital waste may cause contamination and disease if improperly handled. Therefore, such residues are hazardous to the health of waste collectors. These wastes are generated by public agencies, such as hospitals, family health centers, dialysis centers, and private healthcare providers. In this study, a mixed-integer linear programming model is proposed for monthly customer scheduling and route assignment. The proposed approach was fulfilled according to customers’ collection frequency, truck capacity, and customer geographical location. The proposed mathematical model successfully balanced the number of customers and the workload during each day. The effectiveness of the proposed model was tested on data obtained from a waste collection company. The model has been implemented in AMPL language, and the performance of commercial solvers, GUROBI and CPLEX, to obtain an optimal solution were tested. The results show the efficiency of the proposed approach to balance the workload concerning previous scheduling is done ad hoc at the company. The use of the formulated model provides an automatic procedure that was previously performed manually. The methodology can be adapted to other companies with similar requirements.

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“…58 Linfati et al proposed a mixed integer linear programming model for optimizing customer scheduling and route allocation in medical waste collection, emphasizing the importance of minimizing infection risks by optimizing the path from collection to disposal center. 59 Eren and Tuzkaya used safety scores to determine the safest and shortest transportation routes for medical waste transportation vehicles. 60 He and Liu constructed a three-layer recycling network optimization model with the goal of minimizing the total recycling cost (transit station fixed cost, receiving cost, and transit cost).…”

An artificial bee colony algorithm for medical goods distribution and pharmacological waste collection by hybrid vehicles considering environmental criteria

“…For monthly customer scheduling and route assignment in the hospital waste collection problem, Linfati et al (2021) proposed a mixed-integer model. In this model, the customers' collection frequency, truck capacity and customer geographical location were studied.…”

Evaluation and Comparison of Integer Programming Solvers for Hard Real-Time Scheduling

“…As a conclusion, in general, CPLEX was shown to be the best choice. A mixed-integer linear programming model was proposed to solve the problem of customer scheduling and truck assignment for hospital waste collection in [4]. The model has been implemented and the performance of commercial solvers, GUROBI and CPLEX, to obtain an optimal solution were tested.…”