Points of distribution location and inventory management model for Post-Disaster Humanitarian Logistics

• Published in: Transportation research. Part E, Logistics and transportation review Logistics and transportation review, 2018-08, Vol.116, p.1-24
• Main Authors: Loree, Nick, Aros-Vera, Felipe
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Deprivation costs; Heuristic concentration integer; Inventory allocation; Points of distribution; Post-Disaster Humanitarian Logistics
• ISSN: 1366-5545; 1878-5794
• DOI: 10.1016/j.tre.2018.05.003

•A MINLP math model for post-disaster facility location and inventory allocation is proposed.•Model evaluates tradeoffs between deprivation, facility placement, and logistics costs.•Model determines optimal number of facilities and allows for multiple sourcing.•Explicit accounting of deprivation cost should be favored over proxy measures.•Modification of Heuristic Concentration Integer applied to solve large problem instances. This paper develops a mathematical model to determine the location of points of distribution (PODs) and inventory allocation in Post-Disaster Humanitarian Logistics (PD-HL). The model minimizes facility placement, logistics, and deprivation costs (i.e., the cost imposed on survivors by the lack of access to critical supplies) and allows for demand nodes to be served from multiple PODs. This is significant in conditions when one POD may not have the inventory to serve all demand points that it has been assigned. This paper highlights the importance of considering the temporal component of the system and resulting social costs in facility location.