Matching consumer demand to products on shelf

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WUR
Posts: 21
Joined: Monday 10 June, 2013 - 14:14

Matching consumer demand to products on shelf

Post by WUR »

Hi,

I am modelling a fresh supply chain, this should be a pull chain, so driven by consumer demand.
Now I have two sources:
1. Production at the start of the chain
2. Consumers with a demand at the end of the chain
Is this possible? The producer should produce by means of orders and not on his self. Although he might produce a bit himself.

How can I couple the demand of these consumers (sources) to products on the shelf (queue)? With a server?
It should end up in three sinks:
1. Consumption (product is sold)
2. Food loss (label quality level is too low at the end of the chain)
3. Lost sales
The total amount of products in these sinks should reflect the amount of demand.

I am also a bit struggling with the code of the last one, if capacity of shelf is 0, then the demand will be changed in 1 in the sink 'lost sales'. Can anyone help with this code? Or should I ask this in the other theme of this forum?

Many thanks in advance!
marlies
Posts: 301
Joined: Monday 17 January, 2011 - 09:28

Re: Matching consumer demand to products on shelf

Post by marlies »

Hi,

See attached for a small example. A pull system can be modelled using an assembler: the assembler combines a customer with available products.

The assembler checks if products are available and then combine the customer with 1 product. If there is no product in the kanban bin, the customer will be combined with 0 products and sent to the lost sale queue.

The kanban bin can be used if you want to model stock and reorder strategies. You could replace it by a normal queue and model you production strategy in another way.

Good luck,

Marlies
Attachments
PullModel2.mod
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WUR
Posts: 21
Joined: Monday 10 June, 2013 - 14:14

Re: Matching consumer demand to products on shelf

Post by WUR »

May I ask you what a multiservice atom does?

Now I have my inventory modelled with a source that 'generates orders' with the following formula wherein parameter (8,1) is order up to level - content of prroducts in storage facility (2,c) - content of products on shelf (3,c)

label([order size],i) := Max(0, Parameter(8,1) - content(out(2,c)) - content(out(3,c)))

I do not know what will fits best to my model (source as order generation or kanban bin?). I have one scenario where I change the order-up to level etc., but now this is also one parameter.

However, thanks for your clear explanation and the example model you send!
marlies
Posts: 301
Joined: Monday 17 January, 2011 - 09:28

Re: Matching consumer demand to products on shelf

Post by marlies »

Hi,

The multiserviceatom is similar to a server (just processes a product for a certain time), but it can process multiple products at the same time. It's like a set of parallel servers in one atom. Each product has an individual processtime and can enter and leave the atom independent of the others. You could for example use it to spread the arrival of products randomly over a certain interval.

The modelling with the kanban bin was just an example. I think that your approach with the source determining the order quantity is fine as well.

Regards, Marlies
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