CSCAT: the Compaq Supply Chain Analysis Tool

In today´s business environment, the dynamics of the business drive many decisions in the supply chain. Companies buffer their inventory, carry excess capacity and head-count, and have costly marketing initiatives in order to handle the dynamics of the business. In order to better analyze the business dynamics and define supply chains that are robust to changes in the business environment, Compaq has developed an internal package, called the Compaq Supply Chain Analysis Tool (CSCAT). CSCAT is an ARENA^(R) discrete-event simulation that allows for the easy configuration of a supply chain and the analysis of the dynamics of a supply chain. CSCAT has been used by Compaq to address strategic supply chain issues and certain product-specific supply chain issues. This paper gives an overview of CSCAT