Simulation model of professional service personnel inventory

Supply chains are found in service organisations as well as in manufacturing. A common type of supply chain is personnel. Firms such as accounting, consulting, or legal firms need to develop a chain of trained professionals who hone their skills through training and experience throughout their careers. While such firms have to consider these long-range goals, they also need to manage operations in the short-term to generate adequate profit, both through increasing demand for their services as well as controlling costs of delivering them. This paper applies a simple Monte Carlo simulation model to a legal firm decision of managing short-term capacity. Factors to include covering demand, minimising cost, and maintaining quality are considered. The simulation model deals with the uncertainties involved in demand, to include consideration of risk level. A hypothetical law firm (based loosely on an existing firm) is used as a basis for this analysis. Results emphasise that the tools developed for very different purposes work appropriately in this context.