Simulation Modeling and Analysis for Sustainable Supply Chains

Abstract

In their decision-making supply chain management, specialists are usually focused on some characteristic performance metrics that mainly influence the construction of their decision support models and partly also the results. Many of the supply chain issues affect the sustainability performance of companies. Since supply chains are complex adaptive systems, appropriate modeling methods are required to tackle their inherent complexity and lead to desired results that contribute to the achievement of sustainable objectives. From the viewpoint of system theory, they should enable the monitoring, analysis, and control of supply chains providing opportunities for system-wide integration. Since multiple views and layers of a supply chain or multiple interconnected supply chains must be considered, different modeling and analysis techniques are used to achieve the desired levels of detail. In this chapter, three simulation modeling and analysis methods are assessed, considering their suitability to support decision-making in diverse supply chain management problems and scenarios. These results are joined in guidelines for the construction of coherent and consistent simulation models that would enable multilayered and multifaceted analysis of common supply chain management problems and lead to making decisions that efficiently utilize supply chain resources, shorten lead times, and eliminate unnecessary waste.