Analysing the supply chain of blood in the U.K. using simulation

This PhD thesis is concerned with analysing the supply chain of blood products within the UK National Health Service. The objective of the study is to improve procedures and outcomes by modelling a vertical part of the chain from donor to recipient. The supply chain of blood products is broken down into material flows, information flows and cost analysis. Discrete event simulation is used to determine ordering and inventory policies leading to reductions in shortages and wastage, increased service levels, improved safety procedures and reduced costs, by employing better system-wide coordination. In this study the system is examined, the construction of the model and its inputs are described and evaluated, the performance criteria are determined and results are presented from several simulation experiments. Representative small, medium and big size hospitals (in terms of blood consumption) are individually examined in separate models with one blood centre and one hospital. The best combination of policies for all the different size hospitals is determined from the set of tested scenarios. The model is then expanded to incorporate all the three characteristic hospitals, and to observe the relationships as the hospitals compete for resources from the blood centre in a more realistic environment. Transportation, redistribution and transhipment policies are tested in the expanded model to check the impact of these practices on the key criteria. The model execution time problems which arise with the expansion of the model are resolved through the use of distributed simulation; a new, advanced simulation technique whose scope and potential is shown through a feasibility study which was carried out for the purposes of this thesis.