Simulation aggregate planning for batch plant supply chain

Aggregate planning is an important method in supply chain management to increase competition in the market. On the other hand, aggregate planning also ties up a great deal of capital and exerts a strain on customer service. Batch plant supply chain differs significantly in its characteristics from other supply chains, with its members forming unique interrelationships. Quantifying the gains and losses associated with employing different alternatives requires modeling the batch plant supply chain. This thesis presents research in the development of a simulation template in a Simphony environment which provides aggregate planning a tool to optimize and coordinate the entire supply chain. The simulation template also integrates and specifies different characteristics of the batch plant supply chain. After that the thesis focuses on the application of a batch plant supply chain simulation template by modeling asphalt production operations, which can be regarded as a typical batch plant supply chain. A varying and uncertain demand pattern affects the economics of asphalt production facilities and makes the design of the production and inventory processes a challenging task. The simulation model is developed to assist in reconfiguring and optimizing the inventory and production processes of an existing asphalt plant in order to meet variations in the demand pattern of this plant. The results from the models are used to analyze the sensitive factors involved in aggregate planning for the asphalt production process. Finally, the results generated from the simulation model are compared to the results generated from a linear programming model, which is a classical method for aggregate planning. The advantages of the simulation model are exhibited by comparison to this traditional method.