Research on Location-Allocation Problem of Emergency Logistics Based on Supply Chain Collaboration

Abstract

The location of relief distribution centers and allocation of relief commodities are two of the most challenging issues in emergency logistics. This paper develops a multi-objective robust stochastic optimization model to determine the optimal location-allocation for emergency logistics problem considering the priority of demand points, the equity level between two demand points and the average removal time and cost for each relief commodity. In our model, not only demand, but also supplies and the state of roads in the post-disaster phase are considered as uncertain parameters. The proposed model simultaneously attempts to minimize the average of the weighted response times and the sum of the expected value and the variance of the total cost in the preparedness and response phase. Considering the global evaluation of two objectives, a compromise programming model is formulated and solved to obtain a non-dominating compromise solution. A case study of our robust stochastic optimization approach for disaster planning for the Great Sichuan Earthquake in China is presented to demonstrate that the proposed model can help in making decisions on both facility location and resource allocation in cases of disaster relief efforts.