Example Problem: SwiftSample Medical Lab Pickup

This example demonstrates a pickup-focused Vehicle Routing Problem (VRP) where a vehicle collects medical samples from multiple locations and returns them to a central facility.

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SwiftSample Routing Example.xlsx

Scenario Overview

A regional medical laboratory operates a daily pickup service to collect blood samples from clinics and hospitals. A single van must make multiple trips in a day from the central lab to visit a set of clinics to collect samples and return them to the lab for processing.

Because samples are time-sensitive, efficient routing is critical to ensure viability.

Network Structure

• 1 central lab that is the starting and ending location for the vehicle
  • It takes 1 minute to unload each clinic's samples at the central lab
• 100 clinic locations, each requiring a pickup of medical samples
  • Each clinic has between 5 and 25 samples ready for pickup.
  • It takes 3 minutes to load the samples at each stop.

Vehicle

The laboratory has a single van that can hold up to 500 samples at once. There are 1,555 total samples to collect, so the vehicle must make 4 total trips, unloading at the central lab between each trip. The driver must also take a 30-minute break around the middle of the day.

Objective

Determine the optimal route that minimizes the total driving cost. The solution also enforces that all the samples  are picked up from all 100 clinics and that the vehicle's capacity is never exceeded.