A LOCATION MODEL IN BLOOD SUPPLY NETWORK CONSIDERING BLOOD DONOR'S UTILITY

Blood supply chain design plays an important role in health care systems Even though there are technological developments in the field of substitutes for blood products,the need for donor blood and its derived products will always exist .Locating blood facilities in the appropriate location with considering utility from blood donors' viewpoint is important in supply management of blood products. In this paper,a dynamic location problem in blood supply network including blood donors,blood facilities (temporary and permanent blood donation stations) and blood center with considering social aspects like blood donors' utility is proposed. Mobile blood donation facilities (temporary facilities) location is considered in the proposed model for better management the blood donation process. Mixed integer linear programming (MILP) model is applied to formulate the mentioned problem. In order to formulate blood donors' utility,model is developed by utility function considering distance between blood donors and blood facilities separately,blood donors' experience in blood facilities and advertising cost spend in blood facilities. Application of proposed models is evaluated by a case study in Tehran province in Iran. Also,the impact of various utility factors on blood supply in network and location decisions in proposed model is investigated by using sensitivity analysis. The obtained results show that,taking into account the utility of blood donors in the blood supply chain can increase blood volume and also satisfying more donors' desirability will be provided.