Supply chain simulation-based optimisation: the "Direct" approach

The increased level of competitiveness exacerbated in last years in all industrial sectors, is pushing enterprises to strive for a further optimisation of their organizational processes. In order to manage this complexity and improve the supply chain efficiency, a methodological approach is required and thus suggested in this paper. Simulation has been used to study the supply chain of an Italian company as it is a useful tool which provides what-if analysis and evaluates quantitative benefits and issues deriving from operating in a cooperative environment. Simulation has been coupled with the heuristic Direct algorithm in order to find the best values of the supply chain parameters and maximise the expected perfomance.