Heuristic cross shipping of disaster relief supplies at points of distribution

A system for determining cross shipping availability of disaster relief supplies between points of distribution, comprising:

• a computer processor;
• a module executing on the computer processor and operable to select a candidate destination point of distribution and a candidate origination point of distribution from the points of distribution, each of the points of distribution designated for meeting demand from victims, compute shortage of the disaster relief supplies at the candidate destination point of distribution, compute surplus of the disaster relief supplies at the candidate origination point of distribution, the module further operable to compute quantity for distribution to minimum of inventory on hand at the candidate origination point of distribution, the computed shortage and the computed surplus, the module further operable to determine travel time between the candidate origination point of distribution and the candidate destination point of distribution, determine travel time between a supply staging area to the candidate destination point of distribution, and
• if the computed shortage is greater than a previously computed shortage, the computed surplus is greater than a previously computed surplus, the travel time between the candidate origination point of distribution and the candidate destination point of distribution is less than the travel time between a supply staging area and the destination point of distribution, then set cross shipping status between the candidate destination point of distribution and the candidate origination point of distribution to affirmative,
• the module further operable to repeat the selecting, the computing shortage, the computing surplus, the computing quantity, the determining travel time between the candidate origination point of distribution and the candidate destination point of distribution, and the determining travel time between a supply staging area and the candidate destination point of distribution until all of the points of distribution have been selected as candidates,
• wherein information including at least on-hand inventory of each point of distribution, in-transit inventory to each point of distribution, demand queue of disaster victims at each point of distribution, traveling time between supply staging area and the points of distribution, traveling time between the points of distribution, and number of transportation vehicles available for cross shipping is considered for determining cross shipping availability between the one or more pairs of distribution points.

A program storage device readable by a machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the machine to perform a method of determining cross shipping availability of disaster relief supplies between points of distribution, comprising:

• selecting a candidate destination point of distribution and a candidate origination point of distribution from the points of distribution, each of the points of distribution designated for meeting demand from victims;
• computing shortage of the disaster relief supplies at the candidate destination point of distribution;
• computing surplus of the disaster relief supplies at the candidate origination point of distribution;
• computing quantity for distribution to minimum of inventory on hand at the candidate origination point of distribution, the computed shortage and the computed surplus;
• determining travel time between the candidate origination point of distribution and the candidate destination point of distribution;
• determining travel time between a supply staging area and the candidate destination point of distribution;
• if the computed shortage is greater than a previously computed shortage, the computed surplus is greater than a previously computed surplus, the travel time between the candidate origination point of distribution and the candidate destination point of distribution is less than the travel time between a supply staging area and the candidate destination point of distribution, then setting cross shipping status between the candidate destination point of distribution and the candidate origination point of distribution to affirmative;
• repeating the selecting, the computing shortage, the computing surplus, the computing quantity, the determining travel time between the candidate origination point of distribution and the candidate destination point of distribution, and the determining travel time between a supply staging area and the candidate destination point of distribution until all of the points of distribution have been selected as candidates,
• wherein information including at least on-hand inventory of each point of distribution, in-transit inventory to each point of distribution, demand queue of disaster victims at each point of distribution, traveling time between supply staging area and the points of distribution, traveling time between the points of distribution, and number of transportation vehicles available for cross shipping is considered for determining cross shipping availability between the one or more pairs of distribution points.