OneBlood and COVID-19: Building an Agile Supply Chain Custom Case Solution & Analysis

Evidence Brief: OneBlood Operations and COVID-19 Impact

Financial Metrics

Organization Status: Not-for-profit 501(c)(3) blood center.
Primary Revenue: Sales of blood products to over 250 hospitals across the Southeast United States.
Capital Assets: Fleet of approximately 200 Big Red Buses used for mobile collections.
Cost Structure: High fixed costs associated with specialized mobile units and highly regulated testing facilities.

Operational Facts

Collection Mix: Historically 70 percent of blood collected via mobile drives at schools and workplaces.
Product Perishability: Red blood cells last 42 days; platelets last only 5 days.
Supply Disruption: 75 percent of scheduled blood drives were canceled within the first week of the pandemic.
Regulatory Shift: FDA reduced donor deferral periods for travel and other factors from 12 months to 3 months in April 2020.
New Product: Development and distribution of COVID-19 Convalescent Plasma (CCP) within weeks of the initial outbreak.

Stakeholder Positions

Bud Scholl (CEO): Focused on organizational survival and rapid adaptation to the new donor environment.
Bill Block (COO): Tasked with reconfiguring logistics and supply chain flow under extreme volatility.
Susan Forbes (SVP of Corporate Communications): Managed the shift to digital donor recruitment and public safety messaging.
Hospitals: Faced fluctuating demand as elective surgeries were postponed then resumed in waves.
Donors: Transitioned from passive participants in workplace drives to active, appointment-based contributors.

Information Gaps

Specific unit cost comparison between mobile collections and fixed-site collections during the pandemic.
Exact attrition rate of frontline phlebotomy staff due to safety concerns or burnout.
Long-term donor retention data for those who first donated specifically for CCP.

Strategic Analysis: Transitioning to an Agile Supply Chain

Core Strategic Question

How can OneBlood re-engineer a supply chain built for stable, institutional collections into a flexible, donor-centric model capable of surviving systemic shocks?

Structural Analysis

The pandemic exposed a structural vulnerability in the collection model. The reliance on institutional partners (schools and offices) created a single point of failure. When these physical locations closed, the inbound supply chain collapsed despite the continued presence of willing donors. The Value Chain analysis reveals that the bottleneck shifted from processing capacity to raw material (donor) access. OneBlood functioned as a push system that was forced to become a pull system overnight.

Strategic Options

Option 1: Fixed-Site Expansion. Shift investment from mobile units to permanent donor centers in high-traffic retail areas. This provides a stable environment and better control over safety protocols. Trade-off: High capital expenditure and loss of the convenience factor that drives the current 70 percent collection rate.

Option 2: Digital-First Mobile Hybrid. Retain the mobile fleet but eliminate reliance on host locations. Use data analytics to park buses in residential clusters based on donor heat maps. Requirement: Significant investment in predictive scheduling software and real-time logistics tracking.

Option 3: Specialized Product Focus. Pivot resources primarily toward high-value products like CCP and platelets, reducing the focus on whole blood. Trade-off: High margin but higher regulatory risk and narrower market utility.

Preliminary Recommendation

OneBlood should pursue Option 2. The mobile fleet is a sunk cost that provides geographic flexibility. By decoupling the bus from the office parking lot and using digital tools to drive donors to specific, optimized locations, OneBlood maintains its reach while mitigating the risk of institutional closures. This approach transforms the fleet into a dynamic asset rather than a static service provider.

Implementation Roadmap: Operationalizing Agility

Critical Path

Month 1: Deploy mandatory appointment-only scheduling via the mobile app to eliminate crowds and manage flow.
Month 2: Reconfigure Big Red Bus interiors to meet social distancing requirements without losing more than 20 percent of collection capacity.
Month 3: Establish a dedicated CCP logistics workstream to manage the rapid testing, labeling, and distribution of plasma to high-need hospitals.
Month 4: Transition marketing spend from institutional outreach to direct-to-donor digital campaigns.

Key Constraints

Regulatory Compliance: Any change in collection processes or technology must pass FDA scrutiny, which can delay deployment.
Workforce Availability: Phlebotomists are the critical path. If staff infections rise, the fleet stays grounded regardless of donor demand.

Risk-Adjusted Implementation Strategy

The plan assumes a 15 percent buffer in staffing levels to account for quarantine requirements. Execution will focus on the 90-day window to stabilize the CCP supply while simultaneously rebuilding the whole blood inventory. Contingency planning includes a tiered shutdown of mobile routes if fuel costs or local lockdowns make specific zones unviable, shifting those assets immediately to the next highest-yield residential zone.

Executive Review and BLUF

BLUF

OneBlood must institutionalize the agility forced upon it by the pandemic. The transition from a host-dependent mobile model to a data-driven, appointment-based mobile model is not a temporary fix but a permanent requirement for survival. By decoupling collections from institutional partners and investing in digital donor engagement, OneBlood secures its supply chain against future lockdowns. The success of the Convalescent Plasma rollout proves the organization can move at speed; the goal now is to apply that same velocity to the entire operation. This shift preserves the 70 percent mobile collection advantage while removing the single point of failure found in office and school drives. Speed and data-driven donor access are the new operational imperatives.

Dangerous Assumption

The most consequential unchallenged premise is that donors will remain willing to travel to a mobile unit parked in a residential area once the immediate sense of pandemic urgency fades. The model assumes donor altruism can overcome the lack of workplace convenience.

Unaddressed Risks

Regulatory Snap-back: The FDA eased restrictions during the crisis. A return to pre-pandemic deferral policies could shrink the donor pool by 15 to 20 percent without warning, creating a sudden supply gap.
Asset Obsolescence: The Big Red Bus fleet is designed for high-volume, low-distance shifts. A residential-first strategy increases wear and tear and fuel costs, potentially making the mobile model less cost-effective than fixed sites over a five-year horizon.

Unconsidered Alternative

The analysis overlooked a franchised collection model. OneBlood could partner with existing retail health clinics to host collection pods. This would provide the safety and stability of a fixed site with the geographic spread of a mobile unit, without the maintenance costs of a heavy vehicle fleet.