Supply chain distributed simulation: an efficient architecture for multi-model synchronization

The growing interest in evaluating the overall performance of supply chains leads further and further towards the devel- opment of complex simulation models able to answer unsolved questions. In particular, distributed simulation represents one of the tools most frequently used to observe the behaviour of supply chains in order to highlight its lack of efficiency and evaluate new management solutions in a relatively short time. Distributed simulation, however, requires resort to complex platforms, necessary for coordinated time advancing and information exchange management. The technological complexity of these platforms represents a strong limit to the dif- fusion of this tool in supply chain studies, which, on the contrary, evidence the necessity to develop more simplified methodologies. The paper proposes an efficient architecture (SYNCHRO) which is able to synchronize, simply and securely, simulation models which are located in different geographical areas. The architecture, developed by the authors, has been tested to establish its efficiency when using a variable number of connected units and has demonstrated it can be successfully applied in supply chain contexts.