High tech supply chain simulation based on dynamical systems model

During the last 45 years, system dynamics as a continuous type of simulation has been used for simulating various problems, ranging from economic to engineering and managerial when limited (historical) information is available. Control theory is another alternative for continuous simulation that also includes the modelling of differential equations, but mostly employed in engineering. Based on the system dynamics simulation model of Sterman’s high-tech growth firms, this paper studies the application of control theory simulation in design of a high-tech supply chain system and compares the results with those of system dynamics-based simulation. It is shown how easily supply chain processes can be translated into a control theory model using the differential equation approach in the place of Laplace transform. In addition, some improvements are also made on Sterman’s model