scholarly journals Mathematical modeling for optimizing the blood supply chain network

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Amir Rahimzadeh Dehaghani ◽  
Muhammad Nawaz ◽  
Rohullah Sultanie ◽  
Tawiah Kwatekwei Quartey-Papafio

PurposeThis research studies a location-allocation problem considering the m/m/m/k queue model in the blood supply chain network. This supply chain includes three levels of suppliers or donors, main blood centers (laboratories for separation, storage and distribution centers) and demand centers (hospitals and private clinics). Moreover, the proposed model is a multi-objective model including minimizing the total cost of the blood supply chain (the cost of unmet demand and inventory spoilage, the cost of transport between collection centers and the main centers of blood), minimizing the waiting time of donors in blood donating mobile centers, and minimizing the establishment of mobile centers in potential places.Design/methodology/approachSince the problem is multi-objective and NP-Hard, the heuristic algorithm NSGA-II is proposed for Pareto solutions and then the estimation of the parameters of the algorithm is described using the design of experiments. According to the review of the previous research, there are a few pieces of research in the blood supply chain in the field of design queue models and there were few works that tried to use these concepts for designing the blood supply chain networks. Also, in former research, the uncertainty in the number of donors, and also the importance of blood donors has not been considered.FindingsA novel mathematical model guided by the theory of linear programming has been proposed that can help health-care administrators in optimizing the blood supply chain networks.Originality/valueBy building upon solid literature and theory, the current study proposes a novel model for improving the supply chain of blood.

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ali Heidari ◽  
Din Mohammad Imani ◽  
Mohammad Khalilzadeh

Purpose This paper aims to study the hub transportation system in supply chain networks which would contribute to reducing costs and environmental pollution, as well as to economic development and social responsibility. As not all customers tend to buy green products, several customer groups should be considered in terms of need type. Design/methodology/approach In this paper, a multi-objective hub location problem is developed for designing a sustainable supply chain network based on customer segmentation. It deals with the aspects of economic (cost reduction), environment (minimizing greenhouse gas emissions by the transport sector) and social responsibility (creating employment and community development). The epsilon-constraint method and augmented epsilon-constraint (AEC) method are used to solve the small-sized instances of this multi-objective problem. Due to the non-deterministic polynomial-time hardness of this problem, two non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm-II (NSGA-II) and multi-objective grey wolf optimizer (MOGWO) metaheuristic algorithms are also applied to tackle the large-sized instances of this problem. Findings As expected, the AEC method is able to provide better Pareto solutions according to the goals of the decision-makers. The Taguchi method was used for setting the parameters of the two metaheuristic algorithms. Considering the meaningful difference, the MOGWO algorithm outperforms the NSGA-II algorithm according to the rate of achievement to two objectives simultaneously and the spread of non-dominance solutions indexes. Regarding the other indexes, there was no meaningful difference between the performance of the two algorithms. Practical implications The model of this research provides a comprehensive solution for supply chain companies that want to achieve a rational balance between the three aspects of sustainability. Originality/value The importance of considering customer diversity on the one hand and saving on hub transportation costs, on the other hand, triggered us to propose a hub location model for designing a sustainable supply chain network based on customer segmentation.


2013 ◽  
Vol 2013 ◽  
pp. 1-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Morteza Abbasi ◽  
Reza Hosnavi ◽  
Mehrdad Mohammadi

This paper integrates production, distribution and logistics activities at the strategic decision making level, where the objective is to design a multiechelon supply chain network considering agility as a key design criterion. A network with five echelons of supply chains including suppliers, plants, distribution centers, cross-docks, and customer zones is addressed in this paper. The problem has been mathematically formulated as a biobjective optimization model that aims to minimize the cost (fixed and variable) and maximize the plant flexibility and volume flexibility. A novel multiobjective parallel simulating annealing algorithm (MOPSA) is proposed to obtain the Pareto-optimal solutions of the problem. The performance of the proposed solution algorithm is compared with two well-known metaheuristics, namely, nondominated sorting genetic algorithm (NSGA-II) and Pareto archive evolution strategy (PAES). Computational results show that MOPSA outperforms the other metaheuristics.


2015 ◽  
Vol 26 (7) ◽  
pp. 1069-1084 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kanda Boonsothonsatit ◽  
Sami Kara ◽  
Suphunnika Ibbotson ◽  
Berman Kayis

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to propose a Generic decision support system which is based on multi-Objective Optimisation for Green supply chain network design (GOOG). It aims to support decision makers to design their supply chain networks using three key objectives: the lowest cost and environmental impact and the shortest lead time by incorporating the decision maker’s inputs. Design/methodology/approach – GOOG aims to suggest the best-fitted parameters for supply chain partners and manufacturing plant locations, their order allocations, and appropriate transportation modes and lot-sizes for cradle-to-gate. It integrates Fuzzy Goal Programming and weighted max-min operator for trade-off conflicting objectives and overcome fuzziness in specifying target values of individual objectives. It is solved using exact algorithm and validated using an industrial case study. Findings – The comparative analysis between actual, three single-objective, and multi-objective decisions showed that GOOG is capable to optimising three objectives namely cost, lead time, and environmental impact. Research limitations/implications – Further, GOOG requires validation for different supply chain scenarios and manufacturing strategic decisions. It can improve by including multi-echelon supply chain networks, entire life cycle and relevant environmental legislations. Practical implications – GOOG helps the decision makers to configuring those supply chain parameters whilst minimising those three objectives. Social implications – Companies can use GOOG as a tool to strategically select their supply chain that reduces their footprint and stop rebound effect which imposes significant impact to the society. Originality/value – GOOG includes overlooked in the previous study in order to achieve the objectives set. It is flexible for the decision makers to change the relative weightings of the inputs for those contradicting objectives.


2019 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
pp. 58-76 ◽  
Author(s):  
Behzad Karimi ◽  
Amir Hossein Niknamfar ◽  
Babak Hassan Gavyar ◽  
Majid Barzegar ◽  
Ali Mohtashami

Purpose Today’s, supply chain production and distribution of products to improve the customer satisfaction in the shortest possible time by paying the minimum cost, has become the most important challenge in global market. On the other hand, minimizing the total cost of the transportation and distribution is one of the critical items for companies. To handle this challenge, this paper aims to present a multi-objective multi-facility model of green closed-loop supply chain (GCLSC) under uncertain environment. In this model, the proposed GCLSC considers three classes in case of the leading chain and three classes in terms of the recursive chain. The objectives are to maximize the total profit of the GCLSC, satisfaction of demand, the satisfactions of the customers and getting to the proper cost of the consumers, distribution centers and recursive centers. Design/methodology/approach Then, this model is designed by considering several products under several periods regarding the recovery possibility of products. Finally, to evaluate the proposed model, several numerical examples are randomly designed and then solved using non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm and non-dominated ranking genetic algorithm. Then, they are ranked by TOPSIS along with analytical hierarchy process so-called analytic hierarchy process-technique for order of preference by similarity to ideal solution (AHP-TOPSIS). Findings The results indicated that non-dominated ranked genetic algorithm (NRGA) algorithm outperforms non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm (NSGA-II) algorithm in terms of computation times. However, in other metrics, any significant difference was not seen. At the end, to rank the algorithms, a multi-criterion decision technique was used. The obtained results of this method indicated that NSGA-II had better performance than ones obtained by NRGA. Originality/value This study is motivated by the need of integrating the leading supply chain and retrogressive supply chain. In short, the highlights of the differences of this research with the mentioned studies are as follows: developing multi-objective multi-facility model of fuzzy GCLSC under uncertain environment and integrating the leading supply chain and retrogressive supply chain.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ehsan Rashidzadeh ◽  
Seyyed Mohammad Hadji Molana ◽  
Roya Soltani ◽  
Ashkan Hafezalkotob

Purpose Delivery management of perishable products such as blood in a supply chain is a considerable issue such that the last-mile delivery, which refers to deliver goods to the end user as fast as possible takes into account as one of the most important, expensive and, polluting segments in the entire supply chain. Regardless of economic challenges, the last-mile delivery faces social and environmental barriers to continuing operations while complying with environmental and social standards, therefore incorporating sustainability into last-mile logistic strategy is no longer an option but rather a necessity. Accordingly, the purpose of this paper is to consider a last-mile delivery in a blood supply chain in terms of using appropriate technologies such as drones to assess sustainability. Design/methodology/approach The authors discuss the impact of drone technology on last-mile delivery and its importance in achieving sustainability. They focus on the effect of using drones on CO2 emission, costs and social benefits by proposing a multi-objective mathematical model to assess sustainability in the last-mile delivery. A preemptive fuzzy goal programming approach to solve the model and measure the achievement degree of sustainability is conducted by using a numerical example to show the capability and usefulness of the suggested model, solution approach and, impact of drone technology in achieving all three aspects of sustainability. Findings The findings illustrate the achievement degree of sustainability in the delivery of blood based on locating distribution centers and allocating drones. Moreover, a comparison between drones and conventional vehicles is carried out to show the preference of using drones in reaching sustainability. A sensitivity analysis on aspects of sustainability and specifications of drone technology is conducted for validating the obtained results and distinguishing the most dominant aspect and parameters in enhancing the achievement degree of sustainability. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no research has considered the assessment of sustainability in the last-mile delivery of blood supply chain with a focus on drone technology.


2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Reza Ehtesham Rasi ◽  
Mehdi Sohanian

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to design and optimize economic and environmental dimensions in a sustainable supply chain (SSC) network. This paper developed a mixed-integer linear programing (MILP) model to incorporate economical and environmental data for multi-objective optimization of the SSC network. Design/methodology/approach The overall objective of the present study is to use high-quality raw materials, at the same time the lowest amount of pollution emission and the highest profitability is achieved. The model in the problem is solved using two algorithms, namely, multi-objective genetic and multi-objective particle swarm. In this research, to integrate sustainable supplier selection and optimization of sustainability performance indicators in supply chain network design considering minimization of cost and time and maximization of sustainability indexes of the system. Findings The differences found between the genetic algorithms (GAs) and the MILP approaches can be explained by handling the constraints and their various logics. The solutions are contrasted with the original crisp model based on either MILP or GA, offering more robustness to the proposed approach. Practical implications The model is applied to Mega Motor company to optimize the sustainability performance of the supply chain i.e. economic (cost), social (time) and environmental (pollution of raw material). The research method has two approaches, namely, applied and mathematical modeling. Originality/value There is limited research designing and optimizing the SSC network. This study is among the first to integrate sustainable supplier selection and optimization of sustainability performance indicators in supply chain network design considering minimization of cost and time and maximization of sustainability indexes of the system.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document