The Value of Information Sharing in a Serial Supply Chain With Centralised and Decentralised Decision

Abstract

In this paper, we present a simulation based model in order to study the effects of information sharing in a serial supply chain. This chain is multi-product and multi-echelon. Our approach focuses on the study of two shared information simultaneously. The first one is the replenishment leadtime coming from the upstream and the second one is the customers' demand coming from the downstream of the supply chain. Thus, we present four scenarios of information sharing. The demand is supposed normally distributed and the leadtime is random. We develop a cost model consisting of holding, ordering, penalty and transportation costs. The difference of the optimal costs between each studied scenario represents the performance indicator of the information sharing. Two different decisions are considered in our work: centralised and decentralised. The developed model for each studied situation is solved by ILOG CPLEX integrated in a JAVA program. To conclude, the results of our numerical experimentations are analysed.