This paper provides a survey of simulation in supply chain management. It reviews four types of simulation, namely spreadsheet simulation, system dynamics, discreteevent simulation, and business games. Which simulation type should be applied, depends on the type of managerial question to be answered by the model. Moreover, this paper summarizes novel sensitivity and robustness analyses. This sensitivity analysis yields a shortlist of the truly important factors in large simulation models with (say) a hundred factors. The robustness analysis optimises the important factors controllable by management, while accounting for the noise created by the important non-controllable, environmental factors. Both analyses are illustrated by a case study involving the simulation of a supply chain in the mobile communications industry in Sweden. In general, simulation is important because it may support the quantification of the benefits resulting from supply chain management.
Download Info
To download:
If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the
proper application to
view it first. Information about this may be contained
in the File-Format links below. In case of further problems read
the IDEAS help
page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS
site. Please be patient as the files may be large.
Publisher Info
Paper provided by Tilburg University, Center for Economic Research in its series Discussion Paper with number
103.
Find related papers by JEL classification: C0 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - General C1 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods: General
This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:
References listed on IDEAS Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.: