Design of a Flexible, Extensible and Reusable Supply Chain Simulation System

Abstract

In order to handle the hypercompetitive and volatile market, an innovative design framework is presented in this paper to make the simulation system flexible, extensible and reusable. The simulation model is divided into three sub-models: the core model defines the basic structure of the simulation scenario, the data model maintains the detailed information of the simulation model, and the runtime model manages work flows and object life-cycles during simulation. Then the three sub-models are linked through a creative "composite", which is a special component describing the relationships between the sub-models. Neutral interfaces are provided to make outer tools in using transparent to the simulation system. Empirical results show that the implemented simulation system can model and analyze various supply chains and users can extend the existing simulation components easily. The research in the paper can cope with the increasing demand of supply chain simulation, and thus enable more economic and efficient quantitative analysis on supply chain.