Autor: Salima Delhoum

The bullwhip effect leads to instabilities in supply chains. Research on this phenomenon stresses the normative approach. This means that the causes of the bullwhip effect are identified within the structure and processes of the supply chain. However, the bullwhip effect persists even when the operational causes are under control, or when demand information is stationary and known to all parties. Most of all, the influence of behavioural decision making on the bullwhip effect has been underestimated. This is why the paper strives to shed light on this aspect by resorting to a simulation game, the supply net game, for learning inventory control in production networks. The experimental results, involving 130 participants, show that the decision pattern of counterintuitive decision making produces and reinforces what it is thought to lessen namely the bullwhip effect. This happens whenever the participants restrain from ordering while backlogs are building up or continue to order while ...

In a production network, teams or companies exchange information and products to create value. The competitive advantage of the team / company relies on that of the network. This paper addresses knowledge management in a production network especially the promotion of knowledge sharing and transfer. This is a substantial issue when, for example, a company comes to leave the network voluntarily or disappears because of natural or man-made catastrophes. In this case, the question remains whether the substituting company can acquire the tacit knowledge needed to fulfil its mission. Consequently, the operation of the network is also an acute issue. The paper proposes a methodology based on organisational and interorganisational learning and develops a learning laboratory that facilitates knowledge sharing and transfer. This lab supports, (a) knowledge sharing through the mental map’s knowledge elicitation of every company’s leader, and (b) knowledge transfer via dedicated learning-based ...

The paper describes a game called the Supply Net Game, built around the structure of a production supply network based on the “anchoring and adjustment heuristic” which is known as the one people use to make inferences about uncertain events. The game involves four players where everyone manages his manufacturing unit that consists of four production lines which proceed to the joint development of products with the other units. While planning production and controlling inventories, every person should try to minimize the costs caused by both holding items on stock and being in an out-of stock situation. The paper stresses the valuable impact of management games for production engineering education in general and particularly the significance of learning implicit skills as well as gaining insight in inventory control and management of complex distributed production systems such as the system dynamics production network model introduced in the paper.

Production and logistics networks are characterized by an increasing dynamic and structural complexity, which makes an efficient planning more difficult. Observed non-linear dynamic effects, which in case of similar causes can lead to different results, contribute additionally to this problem. As a consequence strong inventory fluctuations can appear among others, which represent a strong economically load for network participants. The simulation-supported analysis of these connections is the main focus of this article. Moreover as a result of the analysis ways and means are pointed out, which will help to react more adequately to the given problems.