Title: Modelling and performance analysis of a supply chain using timed coloured Petri nets

Authors: Maurizio Bevilacqua; Filippo Emanuele Ciarapica; Giovanni Mazzuto

Addresses: Dipartimento di Ingegneria Industriale e Scienze Matematiche, Università Politecnica delle Marche, via Brecce Bianche, 60131, Ancona, Italy. ' Facoltà di Scienze e Tecnologia, Libera Università di Bolzano, Piazza Università 5, 39100, Bolzano, Italy. ' Dipartimento di Ingegneria Industriale e Scienze Matematiche, Università Politecnica delle Marche, via Brecce Bianche, 60131, Ancona, Italy

Abstract: This paper aims at developing a new methodology to design and manage a supply chain (SC) and, at the same time, to evaluate the performance of every stakeholder involved in production chains. The methodology we propose is based on timed coloured Petri nets (TCPNs) and has been applied to a footwear SC, analysing a production system which consists of a manufactures and suppliers network of services, related to logistics systems. The model developed, uses TCPNs to represent a SC: PN places are the resources, whereas the tokens are jobs and orders, while the colour represents the attributes of the job. These colours are used to encode different data types and values attached to tokens. The SC model, developed in this work, using TCPNs allows creating a compact representation of actions of the system. Another particularity of this network is its structure which allows designers an easy realisation of simulators.

Keywords: timed coloured Petri nets; TCPN; supply chain management; supply chain modelling; SCM; performance evaluation; simulation; supply chain design; footwear supply chains.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBPSCM.2012.050386

International Journal of Business Performance and Supply Chain Modelling, 2012 Vol.4 No.3/4, pp.285 - 316

Published online: 11 Aug 2014 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article