RT info:eu-repo/semantics/article
T1 Variable neighborhood search approach to face‐shield delivery during pandemic periods
A1 Pacheco Bonrostro, Joaquín
A1 Casado Yusta, Silvia
K1 Coronavirus
K1 Sanitary logistics
K1 Heuristic optimization
K1 Variable neighborhood search
K1 Economía
K1 Economics
AB In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic and its rapid spread shook health authorities worldwide at the regional and  national  levels.  Healthcare  systems  had  difficulty  acquiring  important  supplies,  such  as  face  shields, which at that time were essential for healthcare staff. The need for this material increased with the spread of the pandemic. In most areas, warehouses did not have a sufficient stock of this product. This situation has occurred in the cities and provinces of Burgos (Spain). Volunteers (citizens and small companies) owning three-dimensional printers offered themselves to manufacture face shields. These volunteers are called “makers.” Similarly, different organizations (mainly Civil Protection) took charge of transport activities (delivery of material to the makers, collection of face shields, and delivery of the latter to hospitals and other entities). In this study, we were tasked with developing a system for planning and rationalizing these activities. The problems that were solved included a vehicle routing problem with different characteristics compared with other models in the literature. A previuous work described this problem, and the heuristic method used for the planning. However, it is necessary to develop tools that are as efficient as possible for similar situations. In this study, we propose a mathematical formulation of the problem and a method based on the metaheuristic strategies variable neighborhood search and greedy randomize adaptative search procedure on a multistart framework. Different tests with real instances used during the period in which these activities were conducted show that the new method improves the results obtained by the previous method as well as the commercial software.
PB Wiley
SN 0969-6016
YR 2023
FD 2023-11
LK http://hdl.handle.net/10259/8408
UL http://hdl.handle.net/10259/8408
LA eng
NO The authors are grateful to the following entities and projects: The Spanish Research Agency (Projects PID2019-104263RB-C44, PDC2021–121021-C22, and PID2022-139543OB-C44) and the Regional Government of “Castilla y León” and FEDER funds (Project BU056P20).
DS Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Burgos
RD 10-may-2024