During this year’s virtual edition of the 31st annual conference of the “Production and Operations Management Society” (POMS), Melanie Reuter-Oppermann gave a talk on the ongoing activities on the application of simulation in combination with optimization of blood supply chains. In particular, we presented the concept of the BISKIT simulation-optimization framework, with specific examples on determination and analysis of storage and testing locations in the South-African blood supply chain. We also touched upon our future plans on how to systematically identify and improve different logistics-related decision problems with support of simulation and/or optimization. The talk was given in the impressively huge and diverse “Humanitarian Operations and Crisis Management” track and the session “Applications of Simulation in Humanitarian Logistics” organized by the BISKIT consortium partners Adam Widera and Bernd Hellingrath from the University of Münster.