Route Optimization Tool (RoOT) for distribution of vaccines and health products.

Ensuring the delivery and availability of health products, including temperature-sensitive vaccines, is vital to saving lives in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).  In many LMICs routes are hand drawn by logisticians and are adjusted based on vehicle availability and product quantities. Easy-to-use real-time supply chain tools are needed to create or adjust routes for available vehicles and road conditions.

A light-touch routing optimization tool (RoOT) for vaccine and medical supply distribution in Mozambique.

Planning vaccine distribution in rural and urban poor communities is challenging, due in part to inadequate vehicles, limited cold storage, road availability, and weather conditions. The University of Washington and VillageReach jointly developed and tested a user-friendly, Excel spreadsheet based optimization tool for routing and scheduling to efficiently distribute vaccines and other medical commodities to health centers across Mozambique. This paper describes the tool and the process used to define the problem and obtain feedback from users during the development.