An Application of Warehouse Location Techniques to Bloodmobile Operations

A heuristic approach to the warehouse location problem suggested by Kuehn and Kuenne was applied to bloodmobile staging area site selection in two American Red Cross Regional Blood Programs. In one region, the results of the analysis were used to direct the site search and justify the ultimate selection.In the second case results indicated that the current staging area location should be retained and other Red Cross operations moved. Staging area location has implications for operating costs, and the analysis allowed both regions to consider this parameter in an objective manner. Management Science techniques are used in this instance and aid in making decisions which traditionally have been made along political lines.