Supply chains are a complex combination of ‘man’ and ‘machine’ and usually difficult to design. In this paper the authors argue that systems engineering can be used as an effective tool for this purpose as it comprehensively takes into account intricacies associated with modelling the attitudinal, organisational and technological issues. They describe the analysis and modelling of a two-echelon steel industry supply chain that services the construction industry using an integrated system dynamics framework as an example to good total system design. Key features of the framework are outlined and implementation details are provided. One objective of the design is to move more rapidly towards a minimum reasonable inventory scenario in the presence of capacity constraints, breakdowns and material supply lead-time bottlenecks. Simulation results are presented showing how the developed model may be viewed as a ‘Management Information System’ to investigate various business strategies.
