Pre-determined Package Sizes and Large Neighborhood Search Approach for Medical Supplies Vehicle Routing Problem of Primary Care System in Thailand

Abstract

In Thailand's public healthcare system, public hospitals would act as supporter and medical supplies distributor for health facilities in their district forming primary care network system. Normally, health facility personnel would make an empty trip to hospital to pick up supplies, and drive truck with low cube utilization back to facility. To improve aforementioned medical supplies distribution in primary care network, a combination of pre-determined package sizes and Large Neighborhood Search (LNS) approach for medical supplies vehicle routing problem is proposed. The pre-determined package sizes are done using frequency distribution method. Comparing current practice with proposed approach, the annual transportation cost is reduced by 44.97 percent and the average cube utilization is 84.19 percent.