This document discusses the production and supply chain management of Kuwait Central Blood Bank (KCBB) and analyzes its ability to handle disasters and shortages. It provides background on global blood supply challenges and KCBB's operations. The researcher aims to develop a quantitative simulation model of KCBB's system to identify current problems and test its performance under unexpected demand surges or donation shortages. Key measures like production cycle time, wastage, and shortages will be analyzed to help KCBB better prepare for disruptions to the blood supply chain.

1. The Production and Supply Chain
Management of Kuwait Central
Blood Bank against Disastrous
Times
Dr. Raed Al-Husain
Department of Quantitative Methods
and Information Systems
Kuwait University

2. Facts
• According to World
Health Organization
(WHO) (2011), while the
need for secure supply of
blood continues to
grow, more than 70
countries lack the
necessary rate of blood
donation in order to meet
their required
demand, and many
patients die due to
shortages in blood supply.

3. Facts
• News Medical (2010)
reported that a study
conducted on hospitals
in the U.S. and
Europe, that annual
expenditures on blood
and transfusion for
surgical patients costs
$1.6 to $6.0 million per
hospital, 37% higher
than estimated by prior
studies.

4. Facts
• Nationwide Blood
Collection and Utilization
Survey Report (2007)
stated that 4.5
million Americans will
need blood transfusion
each year, yet only 37
percent of the U.S.
population is eligible to
donate blood and less
than 10% do annually.

5. Facts
• A study by Cant (2006) stated that in 2001, 7%
of U.S. hospitals had to postpone surgeries
due to shortages in blood inventories.
• A survey study conducted by Toner (2011)in
the U.S., states that the cost of
acquisition, screening, and transfusion of
blood had increased over the past 5 years due
to blood shortages.

6. Facts
• In order to cope with its
increasing cost and
instability of
supply, effective and
efficient supply chain
practices of blood is
essential to ensure
blood transfusion
procedures for those in
need.

7. Blood Basics
• Blood banks fractionate the whole blood in to
different components:
– Cryoprecipitate (Cryo):
• prepared from Plasma and be kept Frozen and has a
shelf life of up to one year.
– White blood cells (leukocytes):
• Transfusion is rare and can last from 18 – 36 hours.
– Red blood cells (RBC):
• Most common in the blood and has a shelf life of about
35 days.

8. Blood Basics
– Platelets:
• They cannot be refrigerated or frozen as they will be
destroyed, which make them very valuable product and
require extra care when dealt
• Platelets have a shelf life of 5 days only.
– Plasma:
• It has shelf life of up to 2 years and can be frozen.
– Fresh frozen plasma (FFP):
• very similar to plasma's content except that it is
prepared and frozen at -18 C○ or colder within 8 hours
from donation time, whereas plasma is frozen within 24
hours of donation time.

9. Blood Basics
• Blood types are divided
into different groups
referred to as the ABO
groups.
• There are 8 different
ABO group types

10. Blood Basics
• The most common blood types are O+ and
A+, but they are also the types that cause the
most concern.
• Many potential donors with these types of
blood are reluctant to donate thinking that
their blood is not needed much, where in
reality their blood type is really used more
than twice as much as any other types.

11. Blood Basics
• The rarest type is AB-.
• It has been estimated that only about 1 in 170
people have this type.
• Next most rare blood type is the B-, About 1 in
every 70 people has this type.

12. Blood Supply Chain

13. Blood Supply Chain
• Donation Process:
– It starts with a volunteer
donor who gives a unit of
417ml of blood cells.
– The blood donation
process could take place
either at a local blood
bank, or at a different
blood donation sites.
– The donated blood is then
transferred to the nearest
processing center, or any
alternative center in case
of overflow or emergency
demand.

14. Blood Supply Chain
• Blood Processing:
– At the processing center a
blood unit is tested and
processed into different
components.
– After the testing is being
completed and the blood
cell unit is being
approved, it is then
transferred to a hospital in
need, either based on a
schedule or an emergency
requisition.

15. Blood Supply Chain
• Blood Transfusion at
Hospitals:
– A blood bank within the
hospital then makes that
blood available to a patient
and eventually transfused.
– A blood unit that is
crossmatched for transfusion
and labeled as assigned
inventory but not used, is
returned to the hospital's
unassigned inventory.
– An excess in blood inventory
at a local hospital could be
returned to a processing
center where it is reallocated
again to different hospitals.

16. Major Issues of Blood SC
• Wastage of blood
components:
– For RBCs, wastage can be
caused due to time expiry and
out of temperature control
due to refrigerator failure.
– For platelets, over 95% of
wastage is due to time expiry
either within the blood
processing center or the
hospital as well, in which they
are ordered for surgical
purposes but then fail to be
transfused; hence unable to
be returned to the blood
processing center or allocated
for another patient.

17. Major Issues of Blood SC
• Transfusion mismatch:
– Caused from patients
receiving the wrong
blood type.
– Although it is rare, it
remains an important
cause of mortality.

18. Major Issues of Blood SC
• Blood shortages:
– Blood shortages
normally occur in areas
where disasters strike.
– Another reason for the
blood shortage include
increased use of blood
for more advanced
procedures than blood
transfusion.

19. Major Issues of Blood SC
• Collaboration between
all various elements of
the supply chain:
– Caused by the lack of data
sharing of supply chain
players (donation
centers, processing
centers, and hospitals).
– Lack of horizontal visibility
at the end of the supply
chain.
– Hospitals are usually
individually responsible for
the fate of the blood.

20. Literature Review
• The interest in the
management of blood
banks services dates
back to the early 1960s.
• However, only most
recent work will be
discussed here.

21. Literature Review
• Angelis et al. (2001) developed a goal
programming model with multi-product and
multi-period to determine the best
assignment of blood resources to demand.
• The objective of their model is to minimize
the quantity of blood imported from outside
the system and stabilize the quantities
assigned daily.

22. Literature Review
• Kozan (2001) developed a stochastic model that
simulates the blood bank inventory system of a
hospital over a finite number of days.
• The study examined the influence of mean and
variation of daily transfusion, the remaining shelf
life of blood units shipped from the blood
supplier, and the number of days between
consecutive shipments on blood outdates and
shortages.

23. Literature Review
• Blake et al. (2003) developed a dynamic
programming model to determine local
inventory ordering policies for platelet
suppliers.
• Bosnes et al. (2005) used regression analysis
in order to predict the daily number of blood
donors arrival in peruse to minimize the
waiting time in blood donation centers.

24. Literature Review
• Katsaliaki and Brailsford (2007) conducted a case
study on a UK hospital blood inventory system.
• A simulation model was used to monitor the
entire supply chain of blood, from donor to
recipient.
• Their objective was to determine an ordering
policy that will lead to the reduction in blood
shortages and wastages, increased service
levels, improved safety procedures, and reduced
costs.

25. Literature Review
• A similar study was conducted by Jennings
(2009), where a detailed inventory model of a
hospital blood bank was developed using
simulation.
• The main objective was to study the effect of
the hospital's inventory policies on blood
shortages and blood outdates.

26. Kuwait Central Blood Bank
(KCBB)
• KCBB is the major blood
provider in Kuwait for both
governmental and privet
hospitals.
• The blood supply chain
network of KCBB is very
similar to the general
network shown earlier.
• However, the unused blood
units at hospitals are kept in
their local blood bank
inventory and not returned
back to KCBB.

27. Kuwait Central Blood Bank
(KCBB)
• KCBB produces 6 types of blood components:
1. Leukocyte reduced RBCs (LR-RBCs)
2. Leukocyte reduced FFP (LR-FFP)
3. Cryo-depleted plasma (Plasma)
4. Cryoprecipitate (Cryo)
5. Apheresis FFP (APH-FFP)
6. Platelet Apheresis (PC-APH)

28. Kuwait Central Blood Bank
(KCBB)

29. Kuwait Central Blood Bank
(KCBB)
• The production process at KCBB includes the
following stages:
– Registration and donation
– Testing and processing
– Storing and delivery
– Delivery to hospitals.
• A detailed description of the production
process is shown in the following diagram.

31. When Disaster strikes
• During al Jahra Fire
accident in 2009, KCBB
was faced with huge
blood shortage and
needed 400 donations
of blood daily to
maintain its emergency
supply.

32. When Disaster strikes
• More recently, during Eid Al-Adha holiday in
2011 the number of donors dropped to 40
donors only.
• There were many casualties across Kuwaiti
hospitals which have led to an acute shortage
of blood supplies as a result of road accidents
and illnesses.

33. Research Methodology
• Accordingly, disasters
may affect
supply, demand, or
even both.
• A quantitative models
of how blood
banks, KCBB in
specific, should react to
disasters are very
limited.

34. Research Methodology
• This research aims to
analyze the production
process and supply chain
management of KCBB via
simulation modeling.
• The objective of the
simulation model is to
identify:
– Problems of the current
KCBB production system.
– Problems of KCBB’s Supply
Chain.

35. Research Methodology
• Moreover, simulation will aid to conduct
sensitivity analysis that will enable to test the
current KCBB system against:
– The surge of unexpected demand during time of
crises
– The issue of donation shortages during scarcity
time, such as holidays.

36. Performance Measures
• Production cycle time:
– Enables to distinguish the production time for all
blood components from the point of donation until
they are ready for delivery.
• Blood wastage:
– in order to be minimized, its important to know its
causes through out the production and supply chain
system.
• Blood shortage:
– Simulation will enable to determine how much, how
often, and of what components blood shortages occur
in KCBB system.

37. Thank You