Modeling and Solving an effect of Covid-19 pandemic on blood Supply Chain inventory management using Ant Colony Optimization

Abstract

The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the inventory management of the blood supply chain is an essential part of inventory management in the area and has become an important concept for the overall profitability of the industrial scenario. It consists of several levels in which the material goes through different phases in order to reach the end customer. The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the inventory management of the three-tiered blood supply chain includes a blood collection point, blood distribution centers and surgical medical centers that bear the costs. A coordinated approach between levels is necessary so that the chain is precisely tuned for the lowest inventory and minimum cost, and therefore, maximum profit. In this article, we consider a three-level coordinated impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on inventory management of the blood supply chain with a single blood collection
point providing a single type of product to distribution centers individual blood, then to individual surgical medical centers. A mathematical model is being developed for the coordinated effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on inventory management of the blood supply chain, which is solved by using the travelling salesman problem to optimize the ant colony for optimal values of decision variables and target functions. A numerical example is provided and the results obtained here are compared for these techniques.