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Modelling defence logistics networks

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Abstract

Military logistics concerns the activities required to support operational forces. It encompasses the storage and distribution of materiel, management of personnel and the provision of facilities and services. A desire to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the Australian Defence Force logistics process has led to the investigation of rigorous military logistics models suitable for analysis and experimentation. Logistics networks can be viewed as distributed discrete event systems, and hence can be formalised with discrete event techniques which support concurrency. This paper presents a Coloured Petri Net (CPN) model of a military logistics system and discusses some of our experience in developing an initial model. Interesting modelling problems encountered, and their solutions and impact on CPN support tools, are discussed.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Computer Systems Engineering Centre, School of Electrical and Information Engineering, University of South Australia, Mawson Lakes Campus, Mawson Lakes, SA, 5095, Australia

    Guy Edward Gallasch, Nimrod Lilith & Jonathan Billington

  2. Logistics Mission, Land Operations Division, Defence Science and Technology Organisation, PO Box 1500, Edinburgh, SA, 5111, Australia

    Lin Zhang, Axel Bender & Benjamin Francis

Authors
  1. Guy Edward Gallasch
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  2. Nimrod Lilith
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  3. Jonathan Billington
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  4. Lin Zhang
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  5. Axel Bender
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  6. Benjamin Francis
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Guy Edward Gallasch.

Additional information

Authors from the University of South Australia were supported by DSTO Contract No. 4500498737.

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Gallasch, G.E., Lilith, N., Billington, J. et al. Modelling defence logistics networks. Int J Softw Tools Technol Transf 10, 75–93 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10009-007-0052-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10009-007-0052-z

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