Application of Operations Research in the Distribution of COVID-19Related Resources

Abstract

Objective: To apply the vehicle routing model based on optimized decisionmaking for the distribution of medical resources to in-patients, and patients with a possible COVID-19 diagnosis, in Camagüey, Cuba.

Methods: Heterogeneous vehicle routing problems with time windows were used in combination with optimization algorithms to cope with the distribution of supplies.

Main results: A total of 15 models were used in the experiment to study the behavior of the algorithms applied to the problem. The CVRP library was run in Matlab. Three meta-heuristic models were utilized: EDA, SA, VNS. Problem FSMVRPTW was solved according to the information modeled, through the EDA and VNS algorithms. The latter was included in the study for its open source code, in Excel.

Conclusions: Studies of vehicle routing problems have shown their usefulness in different complex scenarios, such as pandemics, to optimize the distribution of resources. The existence of optimum organization of transportation to distribute medical resources in COVID-19 times is a vital tool for decision-making in the province of Camagüey, which can be extended to the whole country.