A bi-objective blood supply chain model under uncertain donation, demand, capacity and cost: a robust possibilistic-necessity approach

Abstract

This paper addresses a multi-objective blood supply chain network design, considering economic and environmental aspects. The objective of this model is to simultaneously minimize a blood supply chain operational cost and its logistical carbon footprint. In order to embed the uncertainty of transportation costs, blood demand, capacity of facilities and carbon emission, a novel robust possibilistic-necessity optimization used regarding a hybrid optimistic-pessimistic form. For solving our bi-objective model, three multi-objective decision making approaches including LP-metric, Goal-Programming and Torabi- Hassini methods are examined. These approaches are assessed and ranked with respect to several attributes using a statistical test and TOPSIS method. Our proposed model can accommodate a wide range of decision-makers’ viewpoints with the normalized objective weights, both at the operational or strategic level. The trade-offs between the cost and carbon emission for each method has been depicted in our analyses and a Pareto frontier is determined, using a real case study data of 21 cities in the North-West of Iran considering a 12-month implementation time window.