Development of a blood supply chain network design model by considering lateral transshipment and blood substitution

Abstract

blood supply chain network design is an approach to design an efficient blood supply chain network. This study developed a model for determining the best Blood Supply Chain Network Design solution that considering costs and social sustainability. The developed model was divided into four echelons: blood donation centers, blood banks, regional hospitals, and demand points. The objective of this research was to minimize total supply chain costs while maximize job opportunities. This study considered the concept of lateral transshipment and blood substitution at the third echelon, namely the regional hospital, to ensure that demand was met. The concept of lateral transshipment enabled regional hospitals that having excess of blood unit to satisfy blood supplies to other regional hospitals. Furthermore, blood substitution was a response to emergency conditions, specifically a shortage of appropriate blood product units. Blood substitution scheme is allowed in this research, that is, each type of blood product with a certain group can not only meet its own demand, but can also be used as a replacement for the same product with other compatible groups. a multi-objective possibilistic mixed integer linear programming model was developed. According to the obtained results, the optimal number of facilities to satisfy the uncertain demand, blood flow between supply chain echelons, network cost, and the number of jobs created can be discovered by the model.