Using simulation to improve the blood supply chain

This case study is concerned with analysing policies for managing the blood inventory system in a typical UK hospital supplied by a regional blood centre. The objective of the project is to improve procedures and outcomes by modelling the entire supply chain for that hospital, from donor to recipient. The supply chain of blood products is broken down into material flows and information flows. Discrete-event simulation is used to determine ordering policies leading to reductions in shortages and wastage, increased service levels, improved safety procedures and reduced costs, by employing better system coordination. In this paper we describe the model and present results for a representative medium-sized hospital. The model can be used by both the National Blood Service and by hospital managers as a decision support tool to investigate different procedures and policies.