Supply chain simulation: generic models and application examples

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.