1. Purpose and Functionality
The primary objective is to provide an interactive platform for supply chain engineers to simulate and evaluate different supply chain network design strategies.
It takes a single Excel file with several sheets as input and provides access to the results of multiple simulation scenarios.
You can try it here
2. Initial Step: Data Input
Users can input their data or use a pre-loaded dataset that includes information related to their market demand and manufacturing facilities.
3. Second Step: Data Visualization
Visualize the different parameters of your model based on the data included in the uploaded file.
🛍️ Market Demand
In the location included in your dataset, you have customers (or stores) with a monthly demand in Units/Month.
🏭 Market Supply
In the location included in your dataset, you have potential manufacturing sites (low and high-capacity plants) with a maximum monthly production in Units/Month.
⚡ Energy Usage
For each production location, the energy consumed to produce a single unit (MJ/Unit).
🗑️ Waste Generation
For each production location, the amount of waste generated to produce a single unit (Kg/Unit).
🚰 Water Usage
For each production location, the amount of water used to produce a single unit (L/Unit).
🌲 CO2 Emissions
For each production location, the quantity of CO2 emitted per unit produced (Kg CO2eq/Unit).
The tool will help you to decide where to set up factories to meet demand from all your markets considering transportation, production costs and environmental aspects.
4. Third Step: Selecting the Objective Function
This leads to informed strategic decisions that are improving the efficiency and sustainability of your supply chain.
Users can select among four objective functions,
💰 Production Costs
Minimize the overall cost of producing and shipping products to different markets ($/Unit)
🚰 Water Usage
Minimize the amount of water used per unit produced (L/Unit)
⚡ Energy Usage
Minimize the amount of energy used per unit produced (MJ/Unit)
🌲 CO2 Emissions
Minimize the CO2 emissions per unit produced and delivered (kgCO2eq/Unit)
The results are automatically returned by the app,
5. Final Step: Visualize the Results
For each scenario, the application provides a comprehensive overview of the results using a detailed breakdown of costs and environmental impacts.
A Sankey chart is helping you to trace the flow of goods from production locations to their respective markets.
In the example above,
- Brazil is producing 15,000 units/month: 1,450 Units for its local market and the rest for the USA
- The USA, GERMANY and JAPAN are entirely relying on imports
Decision-makers can take a hands-on approach to their network design.
Using data-fueled prescriptions, they will understand the impacts of each objective metric (CO2, Water, Energy, …).
For example, the visual above can raise the following questions
- Q1: Can we afford a 100% cost increase to minimize CO2 emissions?
- Q2: Why is it cheaper to minimize water usage than CO2 emissions?
- Q3: Would it be impactful to find green manufacturing sites in India?
To answer question Q3, let’s have a look at the visual below
As we can see on the right, the majority of emissions per market is coming from the transportation of goods from manufacturing plants.
Thus, even with the greenest equipment in India, we would still have high emissions because of transportation.