Chairs:   ^(a)  Eleonora Bottani;  ^(b)  Roberto Montanari.

Affiliation:   ^(a) (b)  University of Parma, (Italy).

Contact:   ^(a)  eleonora.bottani@unipr.it ;  ^(b)  roberto.montanari@unipr.it.

Deadlines for submission

Author’s Instruction for paper submission

Track Description

Managing, integrating and optimizing the entire supply chain are key factors for a successful business. World-class organizations now realize that non-integrated manufacturing processes, non-integrated distribution processes and poor relationships with suppliers and customers are inadequate for their success. The proper management of a supply chain encompasses a set of decisions, which embrace both strategic and tactical levels, and include the supply chain structure (number of echelons required and number of facilities per echelon), the selection of the inventory management policy, the assignment of each market region to one or more locations, the selection of suppliers for sub-assemblies, components and materials, the optimization of transports and connections. Simulation is a powerful tool to observe the behaviour of supply chains, assess their efficiency level, evaluate new management solutions, identify the most suitable configuration and optimize the whole distribution channel. By means of simulation models, researchers are enabled to quantify the benefits resulting from supply chain management, in order to support decision making either at strategic, tactical or operational level.

Given this overview, this track is devoted to studies which exploit simulation to the analysis of supply chains, including the following topics: