Analyzing Supply Chain Networks for Blood Products

The blood supply chain, starting from the donor until the blood is used to meet transfusion demands of patients, is a multi-echelon and complex system. The perishable and lifesaving characteristics of blood products, such as red blood cells and platelets, as well as uncertainties in both supply and demand make it difficult to maintain a balance between shortage and wastage due to expiry. An effective blood supply chain should be able to meet the demand while at the same time reducing wastage and total operational cost. In order to be cost effective, the related organizations have to decide how much blood should be collected from donors, how much blood products should be produced at the blood center, and how much blood products should be distributed to hospitals or transshipped between hospitals. The objective of this dissertation is to provide these tactical and operational decisions to guide those who work in healthcare supply chain management and explore new opportunities on performance improvement for an integrated blood supply chain by optimization with aim of minimizing total cost, consideration of transshipment between hospitals, and application of a coordinated multi-product model. This dissertation presents three multi-stage stochastic models for an integrated blood supply chain to minimize total cost incurred in the collection, production, inventory, and distribution echelons under centralized control. The scope of this study focuses on modeling a supply chain of blood products in one regional blood center, several hospitals and blood collection facilities. First, we develop an integrated model for the platelet supply chain that accounts for demand uncertainty and blood age information, then we develop this model further by investigating the impact of transshipment between hospitals on cost savings, and then we propose a multi-product model that accounts for red blood cells and platelets at the same time and compare it with an uncoordinated model where the red blood cell and platelet supply chains are considered separately