| The concept of supply chain management is gaining attention due to acutely competition of economy 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 in our country, using EXTEND software, an complicated Supply Chain inventory control system simulation software package 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, shopkeeper 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.3. The data structure of the software are designed and input,guided,storaged by using Clone and ODBC function of EXTEND.4. The software developed is tested by using simulation data and actual cases. The testing results show that the multi-stage inventory system in a supply chain and inventory strategies can be simulated by the software.In this paper, the whole structure of the inventory control system simulation software is designed and some key function modules are developed. By further expanding the functions and enhancing performances, the software will be applied to simulate the complicated inventory system in a supply chain. |
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