An integrated operations model for supply of relief items under path disruptions

Abstract

The integration of relief supply chain operations is critical for the timely supply of relief items to the areas affected by disasters. This work considers a two stage relief supply chain providing relief kit to the areas affected by flood type disaster. Floods often cause path blockages that affect the supply of relief items. A mixed integer linear programming model is formulated for the integrated production and outbound distribution scheduling problem considered and is solved by using a mathematical solver. Since solvers have computational issues in solving realistically sized problems, a Selective Hybrid Genetic Algorithm (SHGA), which performs a selective local search, is proposed. The proposed SHGA produces near optimal solutions in relatively short computation times which is beneficial for quick decision making. A sensitivity analysis is also performed and the path disruption is found to be the most significant input parameter influencing the model.