Understanding the ‘Bullwhip’ Effect in Supply Chains

Reading Time: <1 minute

Topics

Today’s Wall Street Journal  has a noteworthy front-page article about the “bullwhip” effect, as it is starting to play out in businesses as the economy recuperates. What’s the bullwhip effect? The WSJ article explains:

“This phenomenon occurs when companies significantly cut or add inventories. Economists call it a bullwhip because even small increases in demand can cause a big snap in the need for parts and materials further down the supply chain.”

For more details about “the bullwhip effect” — and what causes it — see the classic 1997 MIT Sloan Management Review article on the topic, “The Bullwhip Effect in Supply Chains.”

In that article, Hau L. Lee, V. Padmanabhan and Seungjin Whang argue that the bullwhip effect results from rational behavior by companies within the existing structure of supply chains.  As a result, companies that want to mitigate the impact of the bullwhip effect need to think about modifying structures and processes within the supply chain — in order to change incentives.

Topics

More Like This

Add a comment

You must to post a comment.

First time here? Sign up for a free account: Comment on articles and get access to many more articles.

Comment (1)
Repetitive, Flexible Supply - Steps Toward Agility (Part 1) - RKL eSolutions - Sage ERP and IT Support Services Provider
[…] This stable, relatively high volume product group has been dubbed the ‘green stream’ by Ian Glenday, inventor of a statistical process called the Glenday Sieve, which can be used to help identify these products. If possible, this should be discovered by looking at actual end-user consumption or “shelf take-away,” as it is sometimes called. Looking at orders placed by distributors and wholesalers may be misleading due to “the bullwhip effect.” […]