Mathematical Programming Models for Annual and Weekly Bloodmobile Collection Planning

In this paper, we propose a two-step bloodmobile collection planning framework. The first step is the annual planning to determine weeks of collection at each mobile site in order to ensure regional self-sufficiency of blood supply. The second step is the detailed weekly planning to determine days of collections at each mobile site and to form corresponding transfusion teams. Only key resource requirements are considered for annual planning while detailed resource requirements and transportation times are considered for weekly planning. Two Mixed Integer Programming models are proposed for annual planning by assuming fixed or variable mobile collection frequencies. A new donation forecast model is proposed based on population demographics, donor generosity, and donor availability. A new concept of bloodmobile collection configurations is proposed for compact and efficient mathematical modeling of weekly planning in order to minimize the total working time. Field data from the French Blood Service (EFS) in the Auvergne-Loire Region are used to design numerical experiments and to assess the efficiency of the proposed models.