Drugs Cross-Distribution Management in Urban Areas through an Incentives Scheme

Abstract The modern societies have witnessed several developments and changes in cities in the recent years. In order to make cities smart, new technological infrastructures are required to connect networks of actors, sensors and actuators embedded throughout the urban ground, and to interact with wireless mobile devices. In this context, this paper proposes an innovative approach for optimizing drug delivery and cost saving, inspired by the collaborative urban logistics concept. More in detail, the proposed approach is based on the use of a shared city warehouse managed by a network of pharmacies where it is possible to pick up the missing drugs. The paper develops a pharmacy supplying method based on an incentive system to engage pharmacists in the drug distribution process. An interactive drug distribution algorithm, based on an Integer Linear Programming problem, is proposed to minimize the external and transport costs. Finally, a case study is introduced, and the method efficiency is shown through the related simulations.