Exploiting Witness Simulation for SCM

Ong, JQ, Latif, M, Kundu, S, Tyagi, GK and Sehgal, P (2014) Exploiting Witness Simulation for SCM. International Journal of Research in Management, Science & Technology, 2.

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Abstract

Supply chain management (SCM) is a considerable source of competitive advantage in a business world. Literature reveals the concept, technique and strategy applied in SCM is important in planning, scheduling and inventory management to limit the effects of fluctuation in demand. Integration of SCM concepts and business simulation is exploited to analyse the behaviour of real time business operations and explore strategies for improvements optimisation of the whole supply chain. Towards this end, supply chain modelling is presented using Witness simulation software with information gathered from a participating retail store on the demand/sales of bottled milk. This paper explores strategies to better manage and control the ordering system to limit the effects of fluctuations. Supply chain modelling and simulation is carried out to diagnose problems, evaluate possible strategies, improve operations and mitigate risk factors. An ordering strategy which is based on the daily basis system and previous week’s sales is successfully developed and simulated. Simulation results of different ordering strategies are presented to show the effectiveness and potential of the proposed methodology. The results obtained demonstrate that an experimental strategy can be implemented in real time to limit the effects of fluctuation in demand.