Adaption of the discrete rate-based simulation paradigm for tactical supply chain decisions

The relative novel discrete rate-based simulation paradigm combines the advantages of the discrete event-based and the system dynamics simulation paradigms. Although its applicability is generally acknowledged in the context of supply chain management, no research works exist, that allow for a direct modeling and simulation of supply chain planning decisions within this paradigm. This paper therefore presents necessary adaptations of the discrete rate-based simulation paradigm for tactical supply chain planning decisions. Our main research contribution lies in extending the discrete rate-based simulation with modeling and material flow controlling mechanisms for enabling a simple implementation and simulation of tactical supply chain planning tasks. To evaluate different planning decisions in this context a multitude of simulation runs are necessary, creating a need for fast simulation approaches. Thus, we show formally, that discrete rate-based simulation models can generally be computed faster than commonly used discrete event-based simulation models.