Using SCM Globe – Jump in and Try it Out

Using SCM Globe is all about designing supply chains and then simulating their operations to see how well they work. When problems occur you edit your supply chain design to fix those problems and run the simulation again to see the effect of your changes. You cycle through several rounds of design and simulation until you get a supply chain that runs for about 30 days. And in the process you will learn a lot about how supply chains operate.

An effective approach to working on any of the supply chain case studies

An effective approach to working on any of the supply chain case studies is to first do whatever you think you need to do just to make the supply chain run for 30 days. Then work on getting it to run for 30 days at the lowest operating costs and lowest inventory levels across the supply chain. In the process you will come to appreciate the endless balancing between different objectives that is called for in the design and operation of supply chains.

First, check out the handful of short videos and tutorials in the Getting Started section. Then log onto SCM Globe and load one of the case studies. When you load a case study click on some of the products, facilities ,vehicles and routes to see how the supply chain is set up. Then click on the “Simulation” button and go right into simulating the operations of that supply chain. After the simulation cycles through some number of days you will get an error message saying there is a problem at some point in the supply chain. Now you make decisions about how to fix this problem.

Go to the first browser tab to make needed changes to the supply chain design. Click on Facilities where the simulation revealed problems. To fix your problem you may want to increase storage capacity or reduce inventory quantity on hand, or change the delivery schedule of the truck bringing more inventory. Make the changes you think are needed.

Then go back to the browser tab where the simulation is, and click the browser refresh button to incorporate the changes you made to the supply chain. And click Play to run the simulation again.

Depending on the changes you make, your supply chain simulation will run for additional days and other problems will arise. Look for inefficiencies in the facilities, vehicles and routes that are causing these problems to happen. With a little tinkering to the supply chain design you can get the simulation to run for 30 days.

Once you get it to run for 30 days, then figure out how to keep adjusting the supply chain design so as to get it to run for 30 days at the lowest operating costs and lowest amounts of on-hand inventory across the supply chain… that is what supply chain management is all about.

[See the SCM Globe Online Guide section titled “Getting Started” for making changes to the supply chain (products, facilities, vehicles and routes). You can watch short training videos on how to use SCM Globe – here is the link – http://blog.scmglobe.com/?page_id=241 ]