A Simulation Approach to Evaluate Supply Policies of a Pig Slurry Treatment Plant by Multiple Farms

This paper describes the use of a dynamical simulation model to evaluate various management policies in a two-stage production systems. Such a simulation-based evaluation is applied to the situation of Grand-Ilet (Reunion Island) where 51 pig farms must supply a collective treatment plant (CTP) with pig slurry. Based on actual data and stakeholders ’ preferences, three policies are tested: a planned policy with fixed delivery period and delivery size and two reactive policies with time-varying order points and replenishment levels: one based on farm stocks, the other based on the CTP stock. The reactive policy focused on farm stocks is judged most adapted to meet the management goals (no stock overflow, robustness) even with random disturbances. Key words: Model-based decision support, supply chain management, agricultural production systems, pig slurry, Reunion Island.