Title: No news, good news: positive impacts of delayed information in MRP

Authors: Marco D'Avino; Mario Macry Correale; Massimiliano Maria Schiraldi

Addresses: Department of Enterprise Engineering, Operations Management Research Group, Università di Tor Vergata, via del Politecnico 1, 00133, Rome, Italy ' Department of Enterprise Engineering, Operations Management Research Group, Università di Tor Vergata, via del Politecnico 1, 00133, Rome, Italy ' Department of Enterprise Engineering, Operations Management Research Group, Università di Tor Vergata, via del Politecnico 1, 00133, Rome, Italy

Abstract: Even though many studies have shown the great impact of information on supply chain performances, and in literature the virtues of information sharing are often proclaimed, there still seems to be a lack of common comprehension about how and when the information should be shared and how it should be used in order to gain the best benefits. This paper shows how data on final demand can be shared from down-stream echelons and used in an MRP algorithm, helping up-stream echelons in computing future requirements more accurately. On top of this, this analysis also shows that, counter intuitively, some supply chain performances can be increased introducing a delay in the information exchange. Indeed, through simulation, it has been demonstrated that a properly computed lag in information diffusion between echelons can lead to a reduction of the bullwhip effect.

Keywords: information sharing; information delay; bullwhip effect; material requirement planning; MRP; supply chain management; SCM; supply chain performance; simulation.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMDM.2013.056455

International Journal of Management and Decision Making, 2013 Vol.12 No.3, pp.312 - 334

Received: 07 Oct 2012
Accepted: 18 Jun 2013
Published online: 24 Jul 2014 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article