Objective: This exercise will introduce the fundamental principles of stock and flow dynamics in a supply chain. You will learn how to model a simple inventory system using two essential tools: Microsoft Excel for discrete, day-by-day simulation, and Insight Maker for continuous, visual system dynamics modeling. By the end of this exercise, you will understand how inventory levels change in response to supply and demand.

Scenario: You are the manager of the campus bookstore. The most popular textbook for a large first-year course has just arrived. Your task is to model the inventory of this textbook over the next 10 days to understand if your ordering policy is effective.

Key Data:

·         Initial Inventory: You begin with 1,000 textbooks in stock.

·         Supply: Your supplier delivers a constant 100 textbooks per day.

·         Sales: You sell a constant 80 textbooks per day.

1.1.         Create the Stock:

·         Go to insightmaker.com and click "Create New Insight".

·         From the "Primitives" menu, click "Stock". Place it on the canvas.

·         Name it Ending Inventory. This represents the inventory level at any given time.

·         In the properties panel on the right, set the "Initial Value" to 1000, matching our Initial Inventory parameter.

1.2.         Create the Inflow and Outflow:

·         Add a "Flow" pointing into the stock. Name it Supply/day.

·         Add another "Flow" pointing away from the stock. Name it Sales/day.

1.3.         Define the Flow Equations:

·         For this simple model, we will set the rates directly in the flows.

·         Select the Supply/day flow. In its properties, set the "Flow rate" to 100.

·         Select the Sales/day flow. Set its "Flow rate" to 80.

Cell Simulation

Objective:
This exercise will help you learn how a supply chain works step by step. You will see how a shortage of materials in one stage can slow down production and affect the final number of products available for customers.

Scenario:
You are the manager of a shoe factory. First, you receive shoe component kits from a supplier. Then, you use these kits to make shoes. After that, the finished shoes are sold to customers. Your job is to build a simulation model to see how the number of component kits and finished shoes changes over 100 days.

This is a rich picture showing the components of a manufacturing system. The client is losing money and is trying to discover why. This is a theoretical picture just to demonstrate how rich pictures can be developed in Insight Maker

Objective: This exercise will teach you how to model a sequential supply chain process with multiple stocks. You will learn how constraints in one part of the system (like a lack of components) can create bottlenecks that impact the final output. 👟

Scenario: You are the manager of a shoe factory. Your factory assembles shoes from component kits. First, you receive component kits from a supplier. Second, you assemble these kits into finished shoes. Finally, you sell the finished shoes to customers. Your goal is to build a simulation model to understand how your inventory of components and finished products will change over 100 days.

Feeding product to a packing Machine.

Instructing Model

This is a rich picture showing the components of AbbVie Pharmaceuticals’ supply chain logistics to contrast the current and proposed states of logistics performance with specific focus on digital technologies

Objective: This exercise will teach you how to model a sequential supply chain process with multiple stocks. You will learn how constraints in one part of the system (like a lack of components) can create bottlenecks that impact the final output. 👟

Scenario: You are the manager of a shoe factory. Your factory assembles shoes from component kits. First, you receive component kits from a supplier. Second, you assemble these kits into finished shoes. Finally, you sell the finished shoes to customers. Your goal is to build a simulation model to understand how your inventory of components and finished products will change over 100 days.

Sterman, J. (2002). System Dynamics: systems thinking and modeling for a complex world.

This is a rich picture showing the components of a manufacturing system. The client is losing money and is trying to discover why. This is a theoretical picture just to demonstrate how rich pictures can be developed in Insight Maker

Objective: This exercise will introduce the fundamental principles of stock and flow dynamics in a supply chain. We will learn how to model a simple inventory system using two essential tools: Microsoft Excel for discrete, day-by-day simulation, and Insight Maker for continuous, visual system dynamics modeling. 

Key Data:

·         Initial Inventory: You begin with 1,000 in stock.

·         Supply: Your supplier delivers a constant 100 per day.

·         Sales: You sell a constant 80 per day.