Analysis of Supply Chain Dynamics through object oriented simulation

Abstract

This paper stems from a cross-fertilization research project aimed at exploring to which extent modeling methodologies and tools that are used in engineering fields could be suitable to solve management problems. A powerful object-oriented modeling language used in those contexts, Modelica, is carefully presented, and its most innovative features are discussed. Then, a very demanding management problem, namely that of understanding Supply Chain Dynamics and controlling the Bullwhip Effect, is addressed. A prototypal application of Modelica is presented in order to evaluate the capability of this language to be applied in the field of Supply Chain Dynamics analysis. © 2005 Physica-Verlag Heidelberg.