Integrated model for blood bank operations

Abstract

This research provides a new approach to blood bank administrators for managing the complex blood bank inventory system. Our method primarily involves identifying and analyzing significant sub-problems in the context of blood banks and them integrating them in a comprehensive model. The approach followed in the research is: 1. First, we construct a set of stand-alone models for the problems of blood collection under random supply, substitution and componentizing. These problems are quite genetic in nature and the insights obtained from these models will be useful in the context of a wide variety of blood banks involved in the activities related to collection and componentizing. 2. Then, we construct an integrated blood bank simulation model which will help a blood bank administrator in making the decisions like: a) how much blood should be collected during each blood donation camp and b) how much fresh blood should be componentized after each camp. The Integrated model is development for a specific blood bank and it will help the blood bank administrator in analyzing the effect of various policies related to collection, componentizing and substitutability on the overall blood bank performance. For the purpose of this study, a state-of-the- art blood bank, which performs blood collection as well as componentizing of whole blood, was chosen. All the blood collected by the bank is through Voluntary donations. The blood bank gets its major supply of blood from organizing blood donation camps. The quantity of blood collected in these camps is random and it varies with the time of the year and the place where the camp is organized. We develop two cut-off level policies for blood collection and compare their performance with the existing policy unrestricted collection at the chosen blood bank. The various stand-alone models development in this research are: 1. Models for collection: 1.1 Analytical models: We develop expressions for various performance measures of a cut-off level policy in a periodic review setting for a specialized case. 1.2 simulation models: We construct a simulation model for the cut-off level policy for blood collection. We study the behaviour of an ordering policy which makes ordering decisions based on the stock level as well the age of youngest batch in the system, under the assumption of actual ageing. 2. Model foe substitution 3. Model for Componentizing. We perform an empirical analysis of the blood bank chosen for the study, in order to understand its context. This analysis is used to identify the demand and supply patterns for blood and its components, in the blood bank. Finally, we build a simulation based Integrated model, which will help the blood bank in understanding the effects of various policies related to collection, componentizing and substitution on its overall performance. Based on the results from the model for blood collection, it was found that collection policy based on the stock level and age of the youngest batch in the system was superior to the classical policy, in terms of the total cost, for a given fill rate. The results from the integrated model suggest that the cut-off level policies usually perform better in terms of managing shortages, wastages & total cost as compared to the existing policy at the chosen blood bank. It was observed that the process of componentizing increases the effective availability of blood products at the expense of increased processing, wastage and holding costs. It was also observed that the substitutability among various blood products was beneficial for the blood bank in alleviating shortages and wastages. The contribution of this research is several-fold: 1. This research provides a new approach to the practitioners for analyzing a blood bank inventory system. The models for blood collection, componentizing and substitutability along with the integrated model provide some meaningful insights in managing the operations of blood banks. 2. The other major contribution of the research is to the existing literature on perishable items. We build and analyze models for collection under random supply, componentizing and substitutability, which have not been reported in the literature. 3. We development new cut-off level policies and an age and stock level based policy for blood collection, and show that these policies perform well it terms of various performance measures. These policies would also be useful for other perishable items working in a similar environment.