Platelets inventory management: A rolling horizon Sim–Opt approach for an age-differentiated demand

Platelets are highly perishable components of blood. The shelf life of platelets is very short during which the platelets should be transfused, otherwise spoiled. It is evident that some medical conditions require platelets of specific ages. In this study, a stocking model of platelets is considered under age-differentiated and stochastic demand. The model aims at finding the optimal quantities by minimising the overall inventory costs. A hybrid of simulation and optimisation is established to optimise the decision variables. This work contributes to the existing literature by discriminating platelets by five ages, employing a new inventory policy of a rolling demand, and using simulation-optimisation framework. Shelf lives of 3 and 4 days were considered for the comparison with literature. The proposed model could outperform the selected policies by demonstrating lower costs. Moreover, the model resulted in lower cost per platelets’ unit compared to the actual costs of some selected hospitals.