Development of distributed simulation model for the transporter entity in a supply chain process

Abstract

The transporter is a critical part of supply chain integration. An international transporter process involves multiple ground pickup and delivery operations, package sorting and palletizing, airport operations and air transport. This paper describes a successful two-machine implementation of a distributed simulation model for an international transportation system in a supply chain network operation using Run Time Infrastructure of High Level Architecture software developed by the Defense Modeling and Simulation Office, the Distributed Manufacturing Simulation Adapter developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and ARENA simulation tool. By incorporating the capabilities provided by these tools, it was successful in establishing information flow exchange between the machines where one machine houses transport while the other has suppliers, customers, and distribution centers located in different parts of world. This research tool attempts to facilitate the development of distributed simulations so they can be used to analyze and solve manufacturing related problems.