Robust design of a multi-echelon dynamic blood supply chain network for disaster relief

Purpose This paper aims to design a robust biobjective two-stage model for a blood supply chain network in a disaster. The objectives are to minimize total costs and delivery time of blood and its components. The network includes donors, collection facilities, vehicles, blood centers and demand points. Backup suppliers are used to prevent shortages. Uncertainty in supply, demand, costs and capacities is considered. The model determines the locations of permanent facilities and blood centers, as well as the capacities and locations of temporary and mobile facilities for each scenario. Design/methodology/approach The biobjective problem is transformed into a single-objective one, and robust optimization is used to handle uncertainties. A two-phase method is deployed to solve the problem. First, a lower bound is obtained using Lagrangian-relaxation, and in the second phase a heuristic based on Lagrangian-relaxation is proposed for finding feasible solutions. Findings Computational results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed heuristic algorithm. The sensitivity of objective functions to fundamental parameters is also examined. Originality/value This study presents a novel blood supply chain network design in disaster that considers various products, echelons and vehicle types. To deal with shortages, it combines backup providers and uses a novel heuristic based on Lagrangian-relaxation to find near-optimal solutions.