Supply Chain Network Design of a Sustainable Blood Banking System

Abstract

In this paper, we develop a sustainable network design/redesign model for the complex supply chain of human blood, which is a valuable yet highly perishable product. Specifically, we consider the optimal design (or redesign) of a blood banking system consisting of collection sites, blood centers, testing and processing labs, storage facilities, distribution centers as well as demand points. Our multicriteria system-optimization approach on networks with arc multipliers captures several critical concerns associated with blood banking systems including but not limited to the determination of the optimal capacities and the optimal allocations, the induced supply-side risk, and the induced cost of discarding potentially hazardous blood waste, while the uncertain demand for blood is satisfied as closely as possible.

Keywords: Supply chains, perishable products, sustainability, blood banking, network design, healthcare, medical waste, network optimization, cost minimization, risk minimization, multicriteria decision-making, generalized networks, variational inequalities