Research on Beer Game's Bullwhip Effect Based on System Dynamics

摘要

This paper describes an experiment that illustrates the challenges of supply chain management. Supply chain management involves the management of orders and shipments of goods through a supply chain; for example, shipping beer from the manufacturer to the distributor to the wholesaler and then to the retailer for sale to customers, and transmitting the orders for beer back up the supply line. The bullwhip effect is the magnification of demand fluctuations, which is evident in a supply chain when demand increases and decreases. In this paper a four-echelon supply chain is modeled and simulated by virtue of system dynamics, in which the Bullwhip effect was measured, furthermore this study presents an approach to determining the relative contribution of the design parameters in controlling demand amplification (the Bullwhip Effect). The overall aim is to give supply chain operations managers and designers a way to understand supply chain dynamics and the effects of design parameters and their interactions.