Optimum Design of a Transportation Scheme for Healthcare Supply Chain Management: The Effect of Energy Consumption

Abstract

The perishability of blood platelets complicates the management of their supply chain. This paper studies the impact of energy consumption and carbon emissions of transportation activities in a blood platelet supply chain. Energy consumption and carbon emissions vary significantly, and the effective location-allocation of blood facilities is a key strategy for the optimal use of energy. The total cost of the supply chain for perishable products is minimized when energy consumption is optimized. The proposed model is too complex to be solved with existing methodologies; therefore, mathematical tools are used to solve it. A numerical experiment is carried out to validate the proposed model, and graphical representations are presented for better visualization of the study’s outcomes. The results of the numerical studies confirm that the selected locations of blood facilities are optimal for the maximization of energy efficiency and minimization of the total cost.