Pencil and paper are great, but when it comes to designing a supply chain, we need tools that are dynamic and visual. Our supply chain simulator provides immediate feedback, allowing you to design, create, modify and optimize a supply chain in a short time and with great accuracy. Something that would certainly help a lot of people these days when so many supply chains are being redesigned.
Why does SCM Globe have a map-based user interface? We do this because in the real world supply chains occur in four dimensions (height, width, depth, and time) so simulations should try to capture these four dimensions as accurately as possible. We use a smart map (like Google Maps, Apple Maps, Bing Maps, etc.) to let you create an accurate 3D model of your supply chain by dragging and dropping entity icons to place them on the map.
Any supply chain can be defined using four essential entities, and their interactions define how well that supply chain will function:
- Products: things in demand in various facilities
- Facilities: places where products are manufactured, stored, sold or consumed
- Vehicles: mechanisms to move products between facilities.
- Routes: routes that vehicles follow to move products between facilities.
Define combinations of these four entities, then drag and drop their entity icons to place them on a smart map as shown below.
Then you run the model you just created in the fourth dimension, time, to see how well it works. You and your team can quickly model different supply chain designs and run simulation scenarios to see what works best.
As the simulation scenarios play out over time you see vehicles moving on delivery routes, and you see on-hand inventory at each facility and operating costs updated in real time on the simulation screen. As you run simulations and watch the onscreen displays you will form a mental model of how your supply chain works. What you learn and the skills you develop from working with the simulations will also work for managing real supply chains. What works well in the simulations works well in the real world too.
SCM Globe uses Google Maps (could use any smart map such as Apple Maps, Bing Maps, Open Street Maps, etc.). So you can zoom in and turn on the satellite view and place facilities where they actually are in existing supply chains, or where you want them to be in new supply chains. Do this to model supply chains anywhere in the world. This creates a rigorous mathematical model of your supply chain which is used for the simulations. But you don’t have to deal with the math (SCM Globe does that for you).
Your process for designing a supply chain will be easier and also more effective. You do the creative thinking, and our simulations do the math. The simulations show how your supply chain designs will work, and you keep improving your designs based on what the simulations show.
That is a powerful combination. You and your team will find good supply chain designs, and be able to keep improving them as the world changes.