Manufacturing and Service Operations Management | July 2023
Academic / Practical Relevance: We present an innovative approach for timely collection of information on transportation demand (samples and results) using low-cost technology based on feature phones and integrate it with a novel version of the Dynamic Multi-Period Vehicle Routing Problem to generate daily routes in response to this updated information.
Methodology: We design the Optimized Sample Transportation (OST) system which comprises two components: a novel data sharing platform to monitor incoming sample volumes at healthcare facilities, and a comprehensive optimization model that generates daily transportation schedules in response to current demand at each facility. We implement OST in collaboration with Riders For Health, who operate the national ST system in Malawi.
Results: Based on analysis of over 20,000 samples and results transported during July-October 2019, we show that the implementation of OST routes reduced average ST delays by approximately 25%. In addition, the proportion of unnecessary trips by ST couriers decreased by 55%.
Managerial Implications: Results from our implementation demonstrate the practical feasibility of our novel approach for improving centralized ST operations in Malawi and its broader applicability to other resource-limited settings, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa.
History: This paper has been accepted as part of the 2021 Manufacturing & Service Operations Management Practice-Based Research Competition.
Funding: This work was supported by Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation [Grant OPP1182217] and by the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering of the National Institutes of Health [Grant U54EB027049]. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the funding organizations.
Supplemental Material: The e-companion is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/msom.2022.1182.
Sarang Deo is a Professor of Operations Management at the Indian School of Business (ISB). He also serves as the Executive Director of the ISB’s Max Institute of Healthcare Management, where he provides strategic leadership for ISB's healthcare initiatives through interdisciplinary research, education, and collaboration.
Professor Deo's research focuses on healthcare delivery systems, examining how operational decisions influence population-level health outcomes. His work spans a wide range of healthcare contexts, including influenza vaccine supply chains and ambulance diversion in the United States, HIV early infant diagnosis networks in sub-Saharan Africa, and formal and informal pathways for tuberculosis (TB) diagnosis and treatment in India. His recent research has focused on designing and evaluating healthcare delivery models, with a particular emphasis on digital health and the integration of artificial intelligence into healthcare systems.
He regularly collaborates with leading global health organisations, including the Gates Foundation, the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI), and PATH. He currently serves on the World Health Organization's Strategic and Technical Advisory Group for Tuberculosis (STAG-TB) and the Working Group for Non-Technical Evaluation under the WHO Global Initiative on AI for Health (GI-AI4H).
Prior to joining ISB, Professor Deo was an Assistant Professor at the Kellogg School of Management. He holds a PhD from the UCLA Anderson School of Management, an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, and a BTech from the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay. Before entering academia, he worked as a management consultant with Accenture.
