Abstract:

 Blood collection optimization against scarce blood shortage is studied. In the case of severe blood shortage, blood group substitution is an important emergency strategy, which has an effect on the decision of blood collection. By analyzing the effect of blood group substitution on blood inventory control and considering stochastic demand, service level, as well as the inventory relationship between blood center and hospitals, an optimization model for blood collection was developed to minimize the expected total system cost, which includes the inventory cost at blood center and hospitals, and penalty costs due to blood group substitution, of the optimal supply shortage, and blood shortage at hospitals. The model is described as a discrete nonlinear mixed integer programming model. According to the characteristics of the proposed model, an accurate algorithm is designed. The results of a numerical example show that the expected total sys-tem cost is reduced by 74.67%. So, the optimization of blood collection with blood group substitution can alleviate blood shortage and improve the supply of scarce blood.

Key words:

blood shortage, blood collection, blood group substitution, inventory control