Proper management of supply chains is fundamental in the overall system performance of forestbased
activities. Usually, efficient management techniques rely on a decision support software,
which needs to be able to generate fast and effective outputs from the set of possibilities.
In order to do this, it is necessary to provide accurate models representative of the dynamic
interactions of systems. Due to forest-based supply chains’ nature, event-based models are more
suited to describe their behaviours. This work proposes the modelling and simulation of a forestbased
supply chain, in particular the biomass supply chain, through the SimPy framework. This
Python based tool allows the modelling of discrete-event systems using operations such as events,
processes and resources. The developed model was used to access the impact of changes in the
daily working plan in three situations. First, as a control case, the deterministic behaviour was
simulated. As a second approach, a machine delay was introduced and its implications in the plan
accomplishment were analysed. Finally, to better address real operating conditions, stochastic
behaviours of processing and driving times were simulated. The obtained results validate the
SimPy simulation environment as a framework for modelling supply chains in general and for
the biomass problem in particular.
