Optimization of Blood Products Inventory and Distribution Processes: A Simulation-Optimization Approach

Due to blood products’ limited shelf life and perishability, the corresponding distribution and inventory processes are of great importance. In Iran, the distribution of blood products is done using the single-destination delivery strategy. In addition to the environmental hazards and pollution, transportation cost is essential. Adopting a multiple-destination delivery strategy could help solve these issues. This study presents a simulation-optimization model for a case study in Tehran with real-world data aiming to improve the blood inventory and distribution processes using a multiple-destination delivery strategy (i.e., a tour delivery strategy). The proposed mixed-integer programming model considers the cold chain of blood products for a central blood transfusion center and several hospitals. A simulation model is proposed to illustrate the effect of hospital consumption rate uncertainty on mortality. As the model is bi-objective, Strength Pareto Evolutionary Algorithm ۲ (SPEA۲) is used to solve the proposed model and find the Pareto front. Numerical experiments show the proposed algorithm’s efficiency and savings in the new distribution process. The proposed model can assist the managers of the blood transfusion system in simultaneous planning of distribution and hospital inventory control of blood products to reduce distribution, wastage, and shortage costs and decrease the number of severe emergency shortages.

Keywords:

Blood Supply Chain Processes , Inventory-Routing Problem , Perishability , Simulation Optimization , Strength Pareto Evolutionary Algorithm