ABSTRACT:

Towards Distributed Supply Chain Simulation using GRIDS
Simon J E Taylor, PhD, MSc, BSc.
Centre for Applied Simulation Modelling
Department of Information Systems and Computing
Brunel University
England.

The past year has seen a growth of interest in distributed simulation from 
commercial modelling companies, particularly in the area of Supply Chain 
Simulation and Logistics. The simulation of, for example, a Supply Chain 
typically involves the combination of several stochastic discrete event 
models. Each model is contained within a simulation modelling package such 
as Extend, Simul8, Witness, Arena, etc. that provides facilities to develop 
the model and to experiment with it. If these packages (and their models) 
are considered as federates, then a Supply Chain simulation will be 
composed of several interoperating stochastic discrete event federates. 
Such a simulation we may call a Supply Chain Federation. Several key issues 
must be addressed in the realization of a Supply Chain Federation. These 
are federation registry, model linking, time management, experimentation 
co-ordination, and user transparency. Each of these issues is considered to 
some degree by the High Level Architecture. However, it is not clear how 
the requirements of the HLA can be realised by commercial modelling 
software as many of these packages are not designed for use in a 
distributed context.

This presentation investigates such issues involved in the creation of a 
Supply Chain Federation and discusses how the Generic Runtime 
Infrastructure for Distributed Simulation (GRIDS), an extensible, 
service-based RTI developed by the author to investigate various issues in 
the High Level Architecture, can be used to create a Supply Chain 
Federation composed of commercial simulation modelling packages 
(federates). To illustrate how these issues are addressed a representative 
case study from the automotive industry is presented. The paper concludes 
with a series of recommendations of key issues that RTIs developed to 
support federates used for Supply Chain Simulation or Logistics must address.