The Analysis of the Role of Bullwhip Effects on the Four-Level Supply Chain in Industry Using Statistical Methods

Abstract

Nowadays, regarding the technology development and communication means, supply chain management has gained special significance among different industries. The impact of bullwhip is one of the factors that could lessn the supply chain efficiency and increase the cost and delivery time of products and services. In this study, we explored the demand forecasting in supply chain, a four-level chain of retailers, wholesalers, manufacturers, and suppliers. Each level of the chain forecasted demand by moving average method, exponential smoothing, multilayer perceptron artificial neural network, and regression. Also, we provide a hybrid model based on statistics and mathematics to reduce the effect of bullwhip. For this purpose, at first, the supply chain simulation was performed. The results were then evaluated applying analysis of variance and the best combined model to reduce the amount of bullwhip effect was introduced. The model of this research could be useful for other studies. Finally, forecast for retail demand using the regression model; wholesale demand using the exponential smoothing model; manufacture demand using the neural network; and supplier demand using the moving average method have been done.