Rapid Distribution of Medical Supplies

Some important issues in the design of an efficient pharmaceutical supply chain involve deciding where to place the warehouses/inventories and how to route distribution vehicles. Solving appropriate facility location and vehicle routing problems can ensure the design of a logistic network capable of rapid distribution of medical supplies. In particular, both these problems must be solved in coordination to quickly disburse medical supplies in response to a large-scale emergency. In this chapter, we present models to solve facility location and vehicle routing problems in the context of a response to a largescale emergency. We illustrate the approach on a hypothetical anthrax emergency in Los Angeles County.