Doctoral Dissertation Research: Can Efficient Learning Mitigate the Bullwhip Effect?

建议的研究研究几个培训协议和协调机会的性质的订单和性能的多级串行供应链的效果。具体来说，我们调查的程度，系统范围内的培训和团队沟通，帮助减轻“牛鞭效应”，观察到供应链中的订单的可变性增加，因为一个移动更接近生产的来源。这种现象在实地和实验室中都有记录，对公司和消费者来说都是普遍的、持久的和昂贵的，并且不能用标准理论完全解释。 为了研究培训和沟通的影响，我们采用了著名的“啤酒分销游戏”，其中实验对象分配的零售商，批发商，分销商或制造商的角色在一个串行供应链战略互动-订购和运输啤酒，以满足客户的需求在多个时期。 我们将在标准基线情况下比较受过训练的受试者的决策和供应链绩效，在标准基线情况下，个人独立制定他们的策略与其他两种治疗方法。在全系统的培训条件下，参与者首先获得学习经验，作为一个中央计划者，为整个供应链做出订购决策，并能够观察到她的行动的直接系统范围的结果。 在团队沟通条件下，鼓励来自同一供应链的参与者在游戏前讨论团队策略。我们希望牛鞭效应在这两种情况下都能减少。 我们会进一步研究每种方法在不同需求情况下的表现。 以前的工作已经探讨了内部或业务创新的影响，如供应链绩效的销售信息共享点，但是，基本上所有以前的工作使用天真的参与者没有或很少的培训经验，并防止沟通。我们的工作将产生广泛的影响，因为它将提供一个急需的测试，以验证培训和沟通等人力资源活动是否会增强个人的学习和行为，并改善现实世界供应链中的系统性能，以及其他涉及延迟和多个参与者的动态决策任务。

The proposed research studies the effect of several training protocols and coordination opportunities on the nature of the orders made in and the performance of multi-echelon serial supply chains. Specifically, we investigate the extent to which system-wide training and team communication help mitigate the "Bullwhip Effect", the observation that the variability of orders in supply chains increases as one moves closer to the source of production. This phenomenon, documented both in the field and in the laboratory, is prevalent, persistent and costly to both firms and consumers, and cannot be fully explained by standard theories. To examine the impact of training and communication, we employ the well-known "Beer Distribution Game" in which experimental subjects assigned the role of a retailer, a wholesaler, a distributor or a manufacturer in a serial supply chain strategically interact -- ordering and shipping beer to meet customer demand over multiple periods. We will compare trained subjects' decisions and supply chain performance in the standard baseline case where individuals formulate their strategies independently with two other treatments. In the system-wide training condition, participants first obtain a learning experience as a central planner who makes ordering decisions for the whole supply chain and is able to observe the immediate system-wide outcome of her actions. In the team communication condition, participants from the same supply chain are encouraged to discuss team strategies prior to the game. We expect the bullwhip effect to be reduced in both conditions. We will further examine the performance of each approach under different demand scenarios. Previous work has explored the impact of internal or operational innovations such as sharing point of sale information on supply chain performance, However, essentially all prior work uses naive participants with no or little training experience and prevents communication. Our work will have broad impact to the extent that it will provide a much-needed test of whether human resource activities like training and communications will enhance individual learning and behavior and improve system performance in real-world supply chains as well as other dynamic decision tasks involving delays and multiple participants.