Modelling the Supply Chain to Destruct Expired Medicines at the Time of Occurring Natural Disasters

Abstract

The supply chain of relief items plays a key role in decreasing damages at the time of occurring crises and natural disasters. It is highly significant to pay attention to the expiration dates of medicines and it is possible to perform proper planning in order to help the injured people considering the time left until the expiration date. In this study, we study the supply chain modeling by considering the decisions related to activating the required facilities and the amount of medicines stocked in them before the crisis, and the decisions related to distributing medicines after the crisis. The under-consideration supply chain provides the required medicines and destroyers expired ones at the time of a crisis. It is required to consider suitable locations for medicine storehouses before occurring a crisis so that it is possible to distribute medicines to hospitals with proper efficiency in terms of considered objectives. These medicines should be stored in suitable quantities in warehouses and expired medicines are required to be transferred at a suitable time in order to minimize the shortage of medicines in the event of a crisis, and also to send medicines to hospitals in the affected regions at the accurate time.