Modelling the Blood Supply Chain

Abstract

The blood supply chain planning process is of the utmost importance, given the number of activities that must be carefully thought out in advance to guarantee demand fulfillment. This network has been significantly studied in the literature, and some supply chain decisions have been addressed through mathematical modeling approaches. Yet, several research challenges still exist in developing comprehensive decision-making tools that could inform optimized solutions. The goal of this work is to review the literature from an optimization perspective and provide a conceptual framework for planning the blood supply chain management through mathematical programming modeling. This is achieved by decomposing the planning problems according to the planning level and identifying the key linkages to consider in an integrated solution approach. The strategic and tactical planning decision-making levels are then described in detail. In addition, an innovative OR-Modeling Framework to address the planning of the blood supply chain is provided. This framework serves as a guide for developing optimization based decision-making models and as a basis for any research in the area.