Research And Development Of The Inventory Simulation System

The concept of supply chain management is gaining attention due to acutely competition in manufacture industry at the present. The inventory system is the main part in supply chain management. Efficient control of inventory at nodes of a supply chain reduces product lead time and cost sharply, and promotes the competition edge of the whole supply chain. There are many uncertain factors with stochastic properties and complicated relationships in the inventory system, so it is hard to model and analyze the inventory system using analytic methods. Computer simulation is known as an efficient method for dealing with stochastic variables in the inventory system. Learning development experience of advanced logistics simulation softwares, based on the actual conditions and need of the inventory system of manufacture industry in our country, an inventory system simulation software package called ISim has been developed. The main jobs done in this paper are as follows:1. Simulation models of the inventory system are defined as combination of three basic logic elements which are supplier, warehouse and consumer, and attributes of respective elements are also defined.2. Based on the Event-Scheduling Approach, an inventory system simulation algorithm has been implemented combined with the advantage of the Process- Interaction Approach. This algorithm resolves problems of priority handling in complicated models, storage of program running status and the application of inventory policy.3. The data structure and standard data interface of the software are designed and developed.4．The software developed is tested by using simulation data and actual cases. The testing results show that the one-echelon inventory system in a supply chain and inventory strategies can be simulated by the software.In this paper, the whole structure of the inventory system simulation software is designed and some key function modules are developed. By further expanding thefunctions and enhancing performances, the software will be applied to simulate the compicated inventory system in a supply chain.