Home // BUSTECH 2015, The Fifth International Conference on Business Intelligence and Technology // View article

A System Framework for Complexity Measurement and Evaluation on the Example of Supply Chain

Authors:
Can Sun
Thomas Rose
Hans Ehm
Stefan Heilmayer

Keywords: complex system; process complexity; complexity measurement; supply chain; bullwhip effect

Abstract:
The complexity of a system is generated by a lot of interactive and interdependent components with dynamic behaviors working together as a whole system. However, the quantitative analysis of the complexity generated by these components and their behaviors and its impact on the system still lacks practical methodology. This paper aims to design a framework to measure the complexity of complex supply chain. The first step is to understand and represent the complexity using an extended conceptual model. Due to the similarity between system and process complexity, we can thus develop the formulas to measure system complexity based on the metrics of process complexity as well as the properties of complex system. The validation is done through a classical supply chain phenomenon – the bullwhip effect, which can be demonstrated using a serious game called beer distribution game. We set two scenarios in the game and compare their complexity values. This framework can also be applied to evaluate the impact and complexity of changes in a system.

Pages: 15 to 19

Copyright: Copyright (c) IARIA, 2015

Publication date: March 22, 2015

Published in: conference

ISSN: 2308-4391

ISBN: 978-1-61208-395-7

Location: Nice, France

Dates: from March 22, 2015 to March 27, 2015