Alternative Inventory and Distribution Policies for a Regional Blood Banking System

Abstract

This paper deals with the application of mathematical methods to the inventory of blood units in a regional supply system.A complex simulation model was designed and implemented in the discrete simulation language SIMSCRIPT to investigate alternative inventory and distribution policies for blood units by means of defined objective criteria. These procedures include a method for inventory forecasting and blood donor call-up and a heuristic allocation model for blood units.Empirical data was collected from the Berlin Blood Donor Service for model construction and validation.The simulation results suggest that the inventory procedures presented may lead to a considerable cost reduction in a regional blood banking system.A specific statistical testing procedure was employed to justify the simulation results statistically. In the final section it is suggested that the inventory methods described in this paper can be implemented within a computer information system providing the blood bank management with decision aids.

Simulation-optimization model for production planning in the blood supply chain

“…One of the main approaches to represent and study the blood supply chain is discrete event simulation (DES). Page [27], Rytilä and Spens [28], Katsaliaki and Brailsford [29], Yegül [30] and Baesler et al [31] use DES to evaluate and improve different aspects of the blood supply chain such as inventory allocation, recycling blood, crossmatching and mismatching rules, collection targets, and transshipments. The standard performance indicators used to measure improvements are the numbers of outdated units, stockouts and emergency orders, and of course cost.…”

A Review of Computer Systems in Blood Banks and Discussion of the Applicability of Mathematical Decision Methods

“…16 in Table 1) an automatic supply of disposition aids (proposition for blood donor call-up on the basis of blood inventory forecasts, allocation proposition for blood units on the basis of placed hospital orders [53]) is also under investigation. These disposition aids represent statistical computations, approaches to inventory theory, forecasting procedm'es or allocation algorithms on a hemistic basis (see [51] and [54]).…”