Title: Optimisation of site selection for urban material distribution during the COVID-19 pandemic

Authors: Houjun Lu; Tian Zhu

Addresses: School of Logistics Engineering, Shanghai Maritime University, Shanghai 201306, China ' School of Logistics Engineering, Shanghai Maritime University, Shanghai 201306, China

Abstract: Improving the resilience of regional logistics and supply chains in controlled cities as the COVID-19 epidemic normalises can have a positive impact on epidemic prevention and management. This paper proposes a resilient logistics mode that establishes large warehouses outside sealed and controlled urban areas to support the distribution of materials required for the public. The selection of the material distribution sites is essential to save cost and time during the distribution process. The distribution of materials in urban communities is disrupted by uncertain factors, such as regional road closures and controls, impassable roads and diminished transport capacity. Therefore, for epidemic containment and control, a site selection model for material distribution in urban areas is required. The site selection has two goals, achieving the highest satisfaction in the demand points, and obtaining the lowest total construction costs in the distribution points. In addition, a risk coefficient for road closure and control is introduced to construct a multi-attribute satisfaction decay function. The division of the epidemic prevention and control stages is described with the quantitative variables of the epidemic control measures.

Keywords: epidemic lockdown; resilient logistics; site selection; simulated annealing algorithm.

DOI: 10.1504/IJIMS.2024.140230

International Journal of Internet Manufacturing and Services, 2024 Vol.10 No.2/3, pp.203 - 221

Received: 31 Dec 2022
Accepted: 25 Jan 2023
Published online: 31 Jul 2024 *

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