• Analysis on the Inventory Policies of Regional Blood Centers

Abstract

Purpose – This study aims to, with regard to the blood inventories of regional blood centers, conduct blood shelf life and cost analyses and import artificial intelligence methods to conduct blood demand forecasts and analysis, as well as compare the pros and cons of different blood inventory management methods.

Design/methodology/approach – Due to the uncertain nature of the demand and provision of blood, which, in a sense, can fluctuate depending on the time or occurrence of certain events, a time series has been formed. This study used platelets as the primary research subject and adopted the long short-term memory (LSTM) network of artificial intelligence to forecast the future supply of platelets. Subsequently, simulation optimization methods were used to determine the optimal inventory policy parameters for the given period, after which the neutral network model was once again used to forecast the optimal inventory policy parameters for the given period. This was done to provide to blood inventory management personnel with a means to enable them to control the amount of donated blood.

Findings – The research discovered that, with regard to the inventory management of regional blood centers, the management methods proposed by this study in the aspects of blood inventory shortage and blood expiration are superior to the methods currently adopted. In addition, during periods of relatively severe blood inventory shortage, the average remaining shelf life of platelets provided was relatively high, while the average remaining shelf life was low when the expired quantity was relatively large.

Research limitations/implications – This research used the data of a single regional blood center as an empirical example, which, if applied to different regional blood centers or even extended to national-level blood dispatch, could produce differences in effectiveness.

Practical implications/Social implications – The methods proposed by this research provide blood inventory management personnel with clear methods for controlling the inventory of blood platelets, helping them to adopt different inventory policies according to management needs as well as to minimize expiration processing, shortage, and inventory holding costs. Moreover, this method could even be used for the inventory management of other blood products.

Originality/value – In understanding the implications of blood inventory management from the perspective of regional blood centers, especially with regard to short-term perishable inventory management, the more accurate the forecast, the greater the inventory management values proved to be.

Keywords – Blood Inventory Management, Regional Blood Center, Neural Network