Date of Award

4-2016

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science in Industrial Engineering (MSIE)

Department

Industrial Engineering

First Advisor

Seokcheon Lee

Second Advisor

Yih Yuehwern

Committee Chair

Seokcheon Lee

Committee Co-Chair

Yih Yuehwern

Committee Member 1

Mark Lehto

Abstract

In this paper, we have solved the unique problem of casualty transportation problem under Ebola by developing dynamic policies for vehicle routing in order to provide practical decision support. The objective of the proposed model is to minimize the total transmission risk. We describe the problem with real- constraints and parameters based on the empirical data of the 2014 Ebola outbreak in Liberia. The casualty transportation problem is a variant of Dynamic Pick-up and Delivery Problems (DPDP), in which a vehicle is dispatched to demand location in real time and it then transports the demands to the aimed area (destination). DPDP integrates various sources of dynamic events as well as real-world aspects. All decision made in dynamic vehicle routing problems are taken in real-time. In same light, the casualty transportation problem is solved in real-time under infectious disease environment. Particularly in case of Ebola, the prompt burial or cremation of deceased Ebola victims would is critical in reducing the transmission of the virus thus casualty transportation problem should be considered mandatory to stop transmission. To solve the casualty transportation problem, our approach involves developing adequate policies for vehicle routing construction under Ebola situation, to evaluate those policies performance through simulations, and to recommend the best policy resulted from experimental results that can reduce the total transmission risk a lot.

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