Application of Integer Programming for Aggregate Production Planning in the Production and Purchase of Vaccines

Abstract

Infectious diseases caused by viruses have been reported across the world. These include seasonal diseases like influenza and emerging diseases such as COVID-19. The vaccine is one of the effective tools to control a virus pandemic among the population by preventing virus infection, reducing the severity of illness, and reducing the mortality rate. The Government Pharmaceutical Organization (GPO) is a state enterprise operated under the Ministry of Public Health, with a mission to supply medicines, medical devices, and vaccines. GPO has a policy of vaccine production to reduce the importing of vaccines and to establish vaccine security in Thailand. As part of the GPO, the biological product (Vaccine) production plant has employed an egg-based platform for the manufacture of vaccines, which presently includes trivalent seasonal influenza vaccine, quadrivalent seasonal influenza vaccine, and COVID-19 vaccine. However, the production capacity is limited. To fulfill the domestic demand for vaccines, imported vaccines have been widely used. This paper aims to propose a mathematical model by employing integer programming to generate a quarterly aggregate production plan for three vaccines. The objective of the proposed model is to minimize the total production cost and import cost under capacity and inventory constraints. The results show the effectiveness of the proposed model and that the manufacturing costs of those vaccines are sensitive to the amount of vaccine production and imported vaccines during the planning period.