Furniture supply chain analysis with a simulation tool: the Natuzzi case

Effective supply chain management is critical to the success and competitiveness of businesses in today's global economic landscape. Specifically, it allows companies to reduce operating costs, improve the quality of the products and services they offer, and maintain a competitive edge. This thesis is a company case study on a simulation tool for the analysis and possible improvement of the efficiency of a supply chain. Specifically, it examines the context of the company Natuzzi S.p.A., operating in the furniture sector. The scope is limited to the analysis of the production system of a single product, the upholstered sofa in different variants, with focus on demand satisfaction and procurement of its components. The study is conducted by comparing different scenarios of procurement process management, with particular attention to reordering policies and choice of suppliers. The key outputs of interest are stock level, service level, delivery lead time, inventory cost and order cost. The aim is to make a comparison and evaluate trade-offs between the cost-effectiveness of logistics chains and the lead time in serving the customer in the scenarios analyzed, a comparison that allows to elaborate considerations on the goodness of tactical and operational processes and suggestions on what could be implemented in the future. The work can be divided into phases: study of the literature, analysis, and identification of the fundamental elements to be considered in the subsequent phases, construction of the model in the AnyLogistix language, analysis of the outputs, sensitivity analysis to verify the robustness of the results obtained.