Bi-objective optimization of a blood supply chain network with reliability of blood centers

This paper presents a multi-periodic, multi-echelon blood supply chain network consisting of blood donors, mobile collection units, local blood centers, main blood centers and demand points in which the local and main blood centers are subject to random failure in dispatching blood products to demand points. The problem has two objectives including minimization of the total chain costs and maximization of the reliability of the local and main blood centers by maximizing the average total number of blood products dispatched to demand points. The problem is first formulated as a mixed-integer linear mathematical model. Then, to solve the problem, three multi-objective decision-making (MODM) methods including Elastic Bounded Objective Method, Modified augmented ε-constraint method and LP-metric method are employed for the solution. Thirty different examples are solved to assess the performance of the solution methods and their results are compared statistically. Using ELECTRE method, the best solution method is selected. At the end, to determine the effect of the change in the main parameters of the problem on the objective functions values, sensitivity analysis is performed.