Supply chains subject to demand shocks
by Kannan Nilakantan
International Journal of Logistics Systems and Management (IJLSM), Vol. 21, No. 2, 2015

Abstract: This paper takes up the study of the behaviour of a distribution warehouse of a supply chain when it is subjected to sudden demand shocks. The warehouse is at the downstream end of the supply chain, and caters to the demand off-take of the chain which follows a responsiveness strategy. We study the effect of different types of replenishment policies followed at the warehouse, and compare their performance with one another in the warehouse system, looking at how quickly they can absorb the shock and smooth out the system, and restore it to its original state. We find that all the conventional replenishment policies suffer from the disadvantage that they inevitably transmit the shock backwards to the upstream units in the chain. We subsequently propose a different design paradigm to formulate the problem under which prevents the backward transmission of the demand shock to the upstream units, but rather attempts to smooth it out.

Online publication date: Thu, 14-May-2015

The full text of this article is only available to individual subscribers or to users at subscribing institutions.

 
Existing subscribers:
Go to Inderscience Online Journals to access the Full Text of this article.

Pay per view:
If you are not a subscriber and you just want to read the full contents of this article, buy online access here.

Complimentary Subscribers, Editors or Members of the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Logistics Systems and Management (IJLSM):
Login with your Inderscience username and password:

Username:        Password:          Forgotten your password?

Want to subscribe?
A subscription gives you complete access to all articles in the current issue, as well as to all articles in the previous three years (where applicable). See our Orders page to subscribe.

If you still need assistance, please email subs@inderscience.com