Study of the Bullwhip Effect in a Multistage Supply Chain with Callback Structure considering Two Retailers

Abstract

With the purpose of researching the bullwhip effect when there is a callback center in the supply chain system, this paper establishes a new supply chain model with callback structure, which has a material supplier, a manufacture, and two retailers. The manufacture and retailers all employ AR(1) demand processes and use order-up-to inventory policy when they make order decisions. Moving average forecasting method is used to measure the bullwhip effect of each retailer and manufacture. We investigate the impact of lead-times of retailers and manufacture, forecasting precision, callback index, and marketing share on the bullwhip effect of both retailers and manufacture. Then we use the method of numerical simulation to indicate the different parameters in this supply chain. Furthermore, this paper puts forward some suggestions to help the enterprises to control the bullwhip effect in the supply chain with callback structure.