Analyzing the Impact of Coordinated Decisions within a Three-Echelon Supply Chain

Supply chain performance is highly influenced by the coordination level between its members, which needs information sharing. In this article we consider a three-echelon direct sell supply chain model and focus on the problem of coordinated decision-making between its members. Our contribution is a first approach that measures the impact of the degree of coordination between the members. Demand behavior is modeled using a geometric Brownian process. Simulation models are run in order to analyze various cooperation scenarios. Our results show a direct relation between the degree of coordination within the supply chain and the total system cost. Although this result is intuitive, our simulations allowed us to quantify such a relation and in which measure these costs are whether or not associated to imperfect coordination. [Article copies are available for purchase from InfoSci-on-Demand.com]