Towards Formal Reliability Analysis of Logistics Service Supply Chains using Theorem Proving.

Abstract

Logistics service supply chains (LSSCs) are generally composed of logistic service integrators and providers that ensure reliable transport of a product or service from a producer to consumer. Given the usage of LSSC in many safety-critical applications, such as hospitals, it is very important to ensure their reliable operation. For this purpose, many LSSC structures are modeled using Reliability Block Diagrams (RBDs) and their reliability is assessed using paper-and-pencil proofs or computer simulations. Due to their inherent incompleteness, these analysis techniques cannot ensure accurate reliability analysis results. In order to overcome this limitation, we propose to use higher-order-logic (HOL) theorem proving to conduct the RBD-based reliability analysis of LSSCs in this paper. In particular, we present higher-order-logic formalizations of LSSC scenarios depicting logistic service providers offering various types of capacities to the logistic service integrators. As an illustrative example, we also present the formal reliability analysis of a simple three-node corporation.