The Dynamics of Delay

The range of behavior that can be observed with just a single component barely hints at what can happen when two or more components are combined. Even the simplest combinations can produce behavior that is surprising and, for the purpose of understanding supply chains, quite revealing. Figure 4.5 shows three components hooked together to form a chain, with the output of each becoming the input of the next. The components don't actually do anything; as the relations below each component indicate, they just pass their inputs through to their outputs without changing them in any way.

Figure 4.5. Combining Components

This system ...

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