Process simulation environment for case studies

Using case studies helps learning and understanding complex issues in operations and supply chain management studies but preparing models for indepth exploration of case studies is time consuming and requires model-building skills. In order to address these issues, an environment for analyzing case studies is developed. The process-oriented approach is used as a basis for analyzing operations and supply chain management problems with emphasis on exploring relationships among different value chain processes such as manufacturing, logistics, marketing and finance. Process flow simulation is used to obtain quantitative process performance measures. Three main components of the environment are catalog of case studies, enterprise management dashboard and process modeling component. These components are implemented using commercially available spreadsheet and process modeling software. The environment can be used for implementation and exploration of different cases studies. Usage of the environment is demonstrated by analyzing a sample case study.