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Abstract ID: 6412
Abstract
SHIELD Illinois launched a statewide, saliva-based COVID-19 testing network that reaches 1,700 schools, colleges and universities in Illinois. The depot was essential to this operation; it served as the central distribution hub daily routing thousands of samples to testing laboratories across the state. Depot operations were heavily impacted at the peak of their pandemic, owing to an extremely erratic arrival pattern of samples and a manual dispatching system, thus often leading to inefficiencies and longer cycle times. This case study simulates routing strategics, assessing their impact on travel times, resource requirements and cycle times from collection to results. Through simulations tests, this study aims to obtain optimal dispatch strategies that will make operation more efficient and consistent thereby minimizing delays. The findings of this research will provide valuable insights into future logistics for large-scale public health responses to epidemics.
Keywords
Simulation, depot, dispatch, disease testing, transportation
1. Introduction
During the peak of the COVID-19 outbreak, Illinois needed an expedited large-scale testing solution. Shield Illinois ("SHIELD") was established by the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) with funding from the Illinois Department of Public Health to administer UIUC's innovative saliva-based test in over 1,700 educational institutions including K-12 schools and universities. SHIELD aims to minimize turnaround times for test results, thereby ensuring timely information for public health decisions. SHIELD'S logistics network consists of all schools serving as sample collection points, laboratories that process the tests, and a distribution center ("depot" located in Darien, IL) where samples are sorted and rerouted to labs. Thousands of saliva samples are processed through the depot every day. Due to the random nature of sample arrivals and a largely manual rerouting process that was reliant on spreadsheets and ad-hoc channels, depot operation was under massive pressure at the peak of the pandemic. This case study aims to improve the depot's operations by constructing a simulation-based model to evaluate various scenarios.
2. Problem Statement
Although SHIELD'S logistics network successfully responded to a high-volume demand, day-to-day depot operations continued to rely on manual and qualitative decision-making processes when it comes to when and how to send samples to different labs, relying on the...