Analyzing disturbances in global supply chains

The thesis, called “Analyzing disturbances in Global Supply Chains”, is subdivided in two part:
•The first part, entitled “Analysis”.
•The second, entitled “ Framework for analysis of disturbances in global supply chains”.

The Part I, “Analysis”, is constituted of six chapters:
1.The first chapter, entitled “Characteristics of Global Supply Chains”, refers about the evolution of Logistic service in Europe, the Global Supply Chain and some behavioral problems can be born between buyers and sellers in a global business.
2.The second chapter, entitled “What is the Bullwhip effect”, is the longest of the project because it gives a whole explanation of this phenomenon. This section is subdivided in three parts: Causes, Controlling and Measuring the Bullwhip effect.
3.The third chapter, entitled “Collaboration in the Supply Chain on mitigation the Bullwhip effect”, explains the importance in collaboration between the actors of the supply chain in order to mitigate the disturbances. A good collaboration or partnership among the echelons of the chain, can allow to reach a win-win situation and a almost optimization of the supply chain as a whole. So, the most important principles of operational collaboration have been shown, like Vendor Management Inventory (VMI) and Collaborative Planning Forecasting and Replenishment (CPFR).
4.The fourth chapter, entitled “The role of Beer Game simulation”, concerns about the experiment that can be done with the Beer Game in order to show the disturbances in the supply chain. The last part of this section focuses of the importance of the Supply Line that, in the logistics speaking, is the quantity of orders planned but not arrived yet, because there is a time delay between the order and the goods arriving.
5.The fifth chapter, entitled “ The role of human behavior in the Bullwhip effect”, refers how the behavior of the decision makers can influence the instability of the system. Particularly, there are two kinds of behavior that can be taken from the decision makers: “Safe harbor” and “Panic”. Finally, with the support of a experiment, it’s described how the personality characteristics can influenced the instability in the Supply Chain.
6.The last chapter of the first part (the sixth), entitled “ Bullwhip effect and ICTs”, explains the advantage there can be in order to mitigate the variability in the Supply Chain, if it’s used an Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) system, since this technology can mitigate the costs, the stocks and the variability of the supply chain as a whole.

The Part II, “ Framework for analysis of disturbances in global supply chains”, is constituted of five chapters:

7.The seventh chapter, entitled “Industrial Dynamics”, explains some characteristics of dynamic systems, especially making reference to the most important characteristic of these systems: the Information-feedback analysis. The first author that began to write about the disturbances in the supply chain was J. Forrester in 1958.
8.The eight chapter, entitled “iThink Simulation Software”, is about an introduction of the tool that it’s been used during the experiments of Elektrobudowa SA, subdividing the section in two parts: Nouns and Verbs.
9.The ninth chapter, entitled “Elektrobudowa SA”, concerns the generality of the company underlying the activities, the areas and the sectors in which the firm operates. Finally there is also a final part carried out from a interview with some logistical managers in the site in Konin.
10.The tenth chapter, entitled “Elektrobudowa’s challenges”, shows the two plans for the future of the firm: the first is “Elektrobudowa with new product lines in China” while the second is “ The purchasing process between Elektrobudowa and a Chinese firm”. For everyone of these cases is exhibited the modeling of the Supply Chain and the model with iThink simulation software.
11.The last chapter of the work (the eleventh), entitled “Elektrobodowa: the simulation”, is a section that contains the results and the comments of the experiments developed with the tool. For every study case is explained the simulations in case of steady, random and growth customer demand. Finally, in the conclusions part, there are proposed the possible improvements can be implemented in the Supply Chain, in order to mitigate the Bullwhip effect and the disturbances as a whole.