Multi Distribution Center Emergency Supplies Distribution Vehicle Scheduling Model And Algorithm

Recently natural disasters like earthquake, landslide, debris flow and so on happened frequently and the results caused by health safety incidents were becoming more and more serious,for example the SARS and Influenza A H1N1 deprived of thousands of lives.These emergencies lead to a huge lost to our country and have become a great threat to people's lives and property.Many emergencies occurred suddenly,so it is becoming more and more important for us to take effective emergency measures after that to reduce the loss caused by these emergencies.And whether the emergency supplies are transported to disaster area opportunely is a key problem for disaster relief,so the vehicle routing problem on transporting emergency materials is drawing more and more attention.The vehicle routing problem on transporting emergency materials is an important aspect of emergency logistics.This paper firstly analyzed the formers'achievement in this research, then based on their study this paper's research problem was raised——a multi-depot vehicle routing problem with special time window in emergency logistics,and at last a mathematical model was built according to the characters of emergency logistics.This mathematical model was more consistent with the reality,and the most important aspect of this model was that every customer's demand for emergency supplies could exceed the truck's maximum load and at the same time every customer's emergency supplies may be transported by many trucks.So this mathematical model could be put into practice more easily.Another innovation of this paper is that it proposes a new solution strategy which integrates table dispatching method with the improved C-W algorithm.The first step this solution strategy uses the table dispatching method to compute the mathematical model built in this paper wholly and then a optimum relation will be found based on which every distribution center will be allocated several customers which this distribution center should transport emergency supplies to them.This method takes into consideration both distance and the relation between emergency materials supply and demand.The second step of this solution strategy uses the improved C-W algorithm to optimize the truck's transportation route for each distribution center.In the last step of this solution strategy, the vehicle scheduling programs will be made according to the results obtained from table dispatching method and the improved C-W algorithm.At the end of this research,a simulation case was given to demonstrate the proposed solution strategy.As can be seen form the analysis results,using this solution strategy to make vehicle scheduling programs will not only complete the task to distribute emergency supplies in time, but also reduce the cost of emergency supplies distribution. So this solution strategy is an effective method to solve the multi-depot vehicle routing problem with special time window in emergency logistics.