A robust stochastic bi-objective model for blood inventory-distribution management in a blood supply chain

Abstract

Providing blood units in a blood supply chain should be effective, appropriate and well-organised since it directly affects the health of individuals, and if not provided promptly, can even lead to the death of patients. This study presents a robust stochastic bi-objective programming model for an inventory-distribution problem in a blood supply chain, the first objective of which attempts to minimise the total number of shortages and wastages and the second objective maximises the connection between two different types of hospitals. The blood supply chain under investigation includes one blood centre, type-1 and type-2 hospitals and patients. Mathematical approximations are employed to remove the nonlinear terms, and a hybrid solution approach, combining the e-constraint and the Lagrangian relaxation method, is applied to solve the proposed bi-objective model. Finally, the model is implemented and analysed using the data inspired by a real case study in Iran to show its potential applicability [Received: 24 September 2018; Revised: 15 June 2019; Revised: 1 September 2019; Accepted: 1 September 2019]