A Mixed-Integer Linear Programming Approach to Support Blood Products Negotiation

The lack of blood products poses a risk to public health and safety. The management of blood banks' supply chains involves considerable uncertainty due to the perishability of these products and the unpredictability of stock levels, which largely depend on voluntary donations from eligible individuals. Sharing blood product inventories remains a challenging strategy to implement, primarily due to the complexity of the supply chain. To increase supply and reduce waste, this paper proposes a negotiation protocol based on a mixed-integer linear programming model, with several extensions to support the negotiation of blood products among blood banks. The proposed formulation considers the amount of blood products offered or demanded, their respective expiry date and stock levels, and the distance between the blood banks. Moreover, extensions of the formulation aiming at obtaining load compaction, reduction of negotiation pairs, and a minimum level of service at critical supply points have also been proposed. The model was tested on randomly generated instances representing two scenarios: (i) blood banks in the state of Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil, and (ii) blood banks in the Northeast region of Brazil. The developed protocol functions as an intelligent negotiation tool that may assist blood bank managers in making decisions regarding the exchange of blood products. Improved management of such exchanges may help enhance the quality of negotiations among blood bank inventories, reduce waste, and increase the availability of these vital products.