Supply Chain simulation: Staying competitive

Supply Chain Management has emerged as the competitive mantra in today's business. The speed of delivery of products to market and the cost of achieving that delivery are increasingly evaluated simultaneously. The tools that are currently available for performing that evaluation use various methods of problem solving such as linear or integer programming, or spreadsheet analysis. These tools lack, however, the fundamental capability of evaluating variability in demand, supply time, or transit time. These factors are key differentiators in competitive performance comparison and analysis. Simulation technology is an emerging as a new tool and its basic strength is in evaluating system variation and interdependencies. This key component allows a decision-maker to evaluate changes in part of the supply chain and visualize the impact those changes have on the other system components and ultimately the performance of the entire supply chain.