Integrating Vehicle Routing and Resource Allocation in a Pharmaceutical Network

Abstract

A problem integrating resource allocation and transportation is considered here as an extension of the well-known vehicle routing problem. It was proposed by a pharmaceutical company, for which items (blood samples) have to be typically transported from doctor offices to laboratories (where the items are analyzed by machines) by a fleet of identical vehicles. The following specific features are considered: multiple pickups, multiple depots, multiple products, transfers, due dates, service level, and dropout level. The goal consists in minimizing the employed resource (i.e., machines, vehicles) and the traveling times of the vehicles. We propose an iterative solution method based on the following sequence of steps: build sectors, build routes, assign vehicles to routes, try to find a solution with fewer machines. Numerical experiments are reported and discussed from a managerial standpoint.