CHAPTER TEN
Discussion Questions
1.What is the bullwhip effect and how does it relate to lack of coordination in a supply chain?
2.
The bullwhip effect refers to the increa in fluctuation of orders along the length of the supply chain as orders move from retailers to wholesalers to manufacturers to suppliers. The bullwhip effect relates directly to the lack of coordination (demand information flows) within the supply chain. Each supply chain member has a different idea of what demand is, and the demand estimates are grossly distorted and exaggerated as the supply chain partner is distanced from the customer.父母的心声
3.What is the impact of lack of coordination on the performance of a supply chain?
免责声明范本4.
The impact of lack of coordination is degradation of responsiveness and an increa in cost for all supply chain members. As the bullwhip effect rears its ugly head, supply chain partners find themlves with excessive inventory followed by stockouts and backorders. The fluctuations in inventory result in incread holding costs and lost sales, which in turn spike transportation and material handling costs. Ultimately, the struggle with cost and responsiveness hurts the relationships among supply chain partners as they ek to explain their lack of performance.
5.In what way can improper incentives lead to a lack of coordination in a supply chain? What countermeasures can be ud to offt this effect?
6.
Incentive obstacles occur in situations when different participants in the supply chain are motivated by lf-interest.
Incentives that focus only on the local impact of an action result in decisions being made t
5fuhat achieve a local optimum but are unable to achieve a global (supply chain) optimum. All supply chain partners must agree on global performance measures and structure rewards such that members are appropriately motivated to focus on the overall performance of the supply chain.
舞台的英文
Sales force incentives also are responsible for counterproductive supply chain behavior. Commissions that are bad on a single short time frame can be gamed by the sales force to maximize commission but the actions inadvertently increa demand variability and exert pressure on the supply chain. Commissions should be structured to provide incentives to consistently ll large volumes of product over a broad time frame to the ll-through point.
Sales force incentives bad on “ll-in” rather than “ll-thru” lead to product being pushed in the supply chain, thus increasing forward buying. If possible, it is best to offer incentives bad on ll-thru or even ll-out (sales to end consumers) becau such incentives eliminate all incentives for forward buying.
软件实施方案
7.What problems result if each stage of a supply chain views its demand as the orders placed by the downstream stage? How should firms within a supply chain communicate to facilitate coordination?
8.
If each stage of a supply chain views its demand as the orders placed by their downstream counterpart, the bullwhip effect is realized by the supply chain (especially when lead times are long). Each member develops a forecast that is bad on something other than the true customer demand and hilarity ensues. Supply chain members should share point-of-sale (POS) data (or at a minimum their own sales data) so that all members are aware of the true customer demand for product. The beauty of data sharing requirements is that only aggregate POS data must be shared to mitigate the bullwhip effect; there is no need to share detailed POS data.
梦见狗生小狗9.What factors lead to a batching of orders within a supply chain? How does this affect coordination? What actions can minimize large batches and improve coordination?
10.
Order batching is caud by a number of different factors. One mechanism is the price structure of TL and LTL shipment quantities; there is incentive to wait a while to make sure that a TL shipment is achieved. A customer’s natural tendency to wait for a milestone, either real or perceived, can also cau batching. Customers may wait until Friday, Monday, the last or first day of the month, etc., just becau that’s when they always have or becau that event reminds them to order. Order batching also occurs becau customers are aware of an impending price reduction and want to take advantage of it. Batching adverly affects supply chain coordination becau the supply chain will be starved for flow, then overwhelmed with demand.
A supply chain can reconfigure their transportation and distribution system to allow for shipments to multiple customers on a single truck to achieve TL quantities. The chain can also assign (or encourage) days for placing orders and move from lot-size bad to volume bad quantity discounts (or abandon discounts and promotions altogether).
11.How do trade promotions and price fluctuations affect coordination in a supply chain? What pricing and promotion policies can facilitate coordination?
12.
Trade promotions and price fluctuations make supply chain coordination more difficult. Customers ek to purcha goods for less and engage in forward buying which creates spikes in demand that may exceed capacity. All parties would benefit if the supply chain ud everyday low pricing (EDLP) to mitigate forward buying and allow procurement, production, and logistics to function at a steadier pace. If price incentives must be offered, the chain is better rved by implementing a volume-bad quantity discount plan instead of a lot size bad quantity discount, that is, providing incentives to purcha large quantities over a long period of time, perhaps a year. Forward buying can also be reduced if promotions are linked to ll-thru rather than the quantity purchad by a retailer.
