A Simulation System to Analyze Effects of Relocation of Machine Tools on Supply Chain Robustness

Supply chains of modern complex systems need to keep up with the globalization of module and component suppliers to cope with resource restrictions, economic disparities, and rigorous environmental legislations. Robustness against variations in manufacturing tasks under undesirable situations is a crucial capability of global supply chains. Flexible and portable facilities can be shared among suppliers to increase supply chain robustness. This study proposes a system for modeling and simulating a supply chain in which portable machine tools are shared among the suppliers and relocated in order to adapt to machine tool breakdowns and manufacturing volume excesses. The system supports complex decision making in terms of the logistics of these machine tools with a view to decreasing the average completion time of manufacturing tasks without adding machine tools into the supply chain as a whole.