Web-based simulation portal for investigating impacts of sharing production information on supply chain dynamics from the perspective of inventory allocation

Information sharing and coordination between buyer and vendor have been considered as useful strategies to improve supply chain performance. The debate is about what information to share and how to share most costeffectively to maximize the mutual benefits of the supply chain as a whole and the individual business players. Proposes a systematic framework for investigating the impacts of sharing production information on the supply chain dynamic performance. This framework supports supply chain researches to study impacts of information sharing under various scenarios. Examines, under the framework, an inventory allocation problem in an arborescent distributio n supply chain with two distributio n channels competing for the same source of supply. Finds that the levels of benefits by sharing information vary with different players involved in the supply chain. Suggests some guidelines to balance the benefits in a supply chain in order to motivate information sharing. Received August 2001 Revised February 2002 Accepted February 2002 sharing (e.g. Davis and O’Sullivan, 1998; Strader et al., 1998; Conway, 2000; Graham and Hardaker, 2000; Croom, 2001; Kehoe and Boughton, 2001; Warkentin et al., 2001). Given a wide spectrum of information technologies (e.g. Internet, extensible mark-up language (XML), common object request broker architecture (CORBA)), it is unclear which technology is most suitable for enabling the share of production information in the supply chain. The above brief review of the related literature has highlighted the necessity and significance of sharing production information in order to remedy the so-called bullwhip effect and its associated impacts. However, the literature generally does not address adequately what exactly production information the enterprises in the supply chain should share, and to what extent they should share. Having recognized these limitations in the literature, a research project has been initiated to address these research questions. The overall objective of this project is to develop a framework for investigating the impacts of sharing production information on the supply chain dynamic performance. The proposed framework will be used to carry out a series of simulations from several perspectives such as resource allocation, material requirement planning and rescheduling. Techniques of experimental design will be applied to analyse the results to derive insightful findings. Guidelines will be established to assist industrialists to set up efficient and effective supply chain management systems. The research will take full advantage of the emerging information and telecommunication technologies, and take into consideration industrial needs. This paper reports on a Web-based implementation of a conceptual framework proposed from this research project (Huang et al., 2001) and some early findings from initial investigations. Web-based simulation portal A conceptual systematic framework has been developed from our early research for investigating the impacts of sharing production information on the supply chain dynamics (Huang et al., 2001). Based on this proposed framework, further development has been accomplished to establish a simulation portal on the World Wide Web (Web or WWW). The resulting prototype simulation portal is diagrammatically shown in Figure 1. Generally speaking, this simulation portal provides a suite of online facilities in a step-by-step fashion for analysts to design and conduct simulation experiments and afterwards to analyse the results and draw implications. The key steps of using the simulation portal follow those of the conceptual framework. They will be explained in detail in the subsequent section one by one. The purposes are threefold: 1 to serve as the test-bed for implementing and executing the experimental simulations; 2 to provide a Web-based test-bed or portal open to the entire research community to share the experimental data and results; and 3 to provide some practical insights to industrial practitioners regarding how the production information can be made shareable between enterprises in the supply chain with the support of the Internet and Web technology. The development and implementation of a Web site for just carrying out the experimental simulations specifically designed in this project is relatively straightforward. Web pages are designed to follow the format of worksheets used at different stages. Input and output data are stored into and retrieved from the backend database. A typical three-tiered architecture of Web applications is adopted in an active server pages (ASP) programming environment. Java/VB (visual basic) scripts have been extensively used, in addition to SQL (structured query language) for database programming. However, significant challenges are expected if the site is intended for the second and third purposes. On the one hand, this Web site is not intended to become a Web-based general-purpose simulation system. On the other hand, some degree of customisation should be provided so that the users are able to change the settings of experimental simulations. A set of supply chain structures, typical decision levels, the production information hierarchy, the supply chain dynamic index hierarchy, supply chain dynamic models will be parametrically pre-defined and thereafter maintained in the backend database. Facilities will be provided for customizing the parameters. The building up of the model of a subject supply chain structure and the definition of simulation logics in the simulation model are some functions generally available from commercial simulation packages. Therefore, this research would avoid repeating the efforts. [ 346] Jason S.K. Lau, George Q. Huang, and K.L. Mak Web-based simulation portal for investigating impacts of sharing production information on supply chain dynamics from the perspective of inventory allocation Integrated Manufacturing Systems 13/5 [2002] 345±358