Supply chain simulation: generic models and application examples

TLDR

The simulation represents business process activities in supply chain management through organisation‑based models that cover demand prediction, manufacturing planning, material purchasing, ordering, shipping, and manufacturing and transportation operations. The paper proposes a simulation system to support the design of supply chain management operations. The system simulates typical supply chain configurations, including centre‑controlled ordering, vendor reorder‑point, and pull‑operational systems. The simulation results are compared to evaluate supply‑chain performance.

Abstract

This paper proposes a simulation system to support designing supply chain management operations. The most remarkable characteristic of this simulation is to represent business process activities in supply chain management. The organisation-based models are described in this paper. Activities of these models include supply-chain management operations, such as ‘demands predictions’, ‘manufacturing planning’, ‘material purchasing’, ‘manufacturing and transportation ordering’, and ‘products shipping’. These models also represent activities in manufacturing and transportation operations. This paper further demonstrates simulations of the typical forms of supply chain systems: these are ‘centre-controlled ordering system’, ‘vendor reorder-point system’, and ‘pull-operational system’. Finally, these simulation results are compared in view of supply chain performance.