SBIR Phase I: Enterprise Decision making using Activity Interaction technology

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I Project seeks to develop a Network Algorithm for efficiently running large-scale network simulations to perform enterprise planning and risk analysis. Currently, supply-chain models consist of only simplistic, low-detail nodes which only approximate the facility's parameters that they represent. Because of this, it is difficult to determine the effect of operational level changes and relationships on a network-wide level. Research has shown that running a large-scale, supply chain model consisting of detailed operational models will run too slowly to perform any meaningful analysis in a timely manner. This project aims to develop a simulation methodology that meaningfully links together highly-detailed operational level models with its large network-scale model. Each operations simulation will be linked by network relationships such as supply and demand, product flows, and inventory holding centers. It is then possible to create a matrix which stores these relational parameters that minimize the computing time investment required. The broader impact/commercial potential of this project will provide organizations with a better understand of the risks they face both internally and across the entire production network. Industrial mishaps, such as the Ericsson facility fire which decimated the firm's inventory levels, have underlined the need to understand the complex inter-relationships between, as well as within, companies. A network simulator allows analysts to explicitly see how facilities are interrelated and how adverse events affect not just one facility, but the entire network. The technology has to potential to be used across the biopharmaceutical industry and both increase quality of care to the patient as well as reduce manufacturing costs by a similar amount.