5
Supply Chain Management Based on Modeling & Simulation: State of the Art and Application Examples in Inventory and Warehouse Management
Francesco Longo
Modeling & Simulation Center – Laboratory of Enterprise Solutions (MSC-LES) Mechanical Department, University of Calabria Via P. Bucci, Cubo 44C, third floor, 87036 Rende (CS) Italy 1. Introduction
The business globalization has transformed the modern companies from independent entities to extended enterprises that strongly cooperate with all supply chain actors. Nowadays supply chains involve multiple actors, multiple flows of items, information and finances. Each supply chain node has its own customers, suppliers and inventory management strategies, demand arrival process and demand forecast methods, items mixture and dedicated internal resources. In this context, each supply chain manager aims to reach the key objective of an efficient supply chain: ‘the right quantity at the right time and in the right place’. To this end, each supply chain node (suppliers, manufacturers, distribution centers, warehouses, stores, etc.) carries out various processes and activities for guarantying goods and services to final customers. The competitiveness of each supply chain actor depends by its capability to activate and manage change processes, in correspondence of optimistic and pessimistic scenarios, to quickly capitalize the chances given by market. Such capability is a critical issue for improving the performance of the ‘extended enterprise’ and it must take into account the complex interactions among the various supply chain nodes. The evaluation of correct trades-offs between conflicting factors, such as inventory reduction and fill rates, customers’ satisfaction and transportation cost, sales loss and inventory costs, resources management and internal costs, are (among others) the most important tasks of a competent