Information Distortion in a Supply Chain: The Bullwhip Effect

摘要: (This article originally appeared in Management Science, April 1997, Volume 43, Number 4, pp. 546-558, published by The Institute of Sciences.) Consider a series companies supply chain, each whom orders from its immediate upstream member. In this setting, inbound downstream member serve as valuable informational input to production and inventory decisions. This paper claims that the information transferred form "orders" tends be distorted can misguide members their particular, variance may larger than sales, distortion increase one moves upstream-a phenomenon termed "bullwhip effect." analyzes four sources bullwhip effect: demand signal processing, rationing game, order batching, price variations. Actions taken mitigate detrimental impact are also discussed.