| This dissertation investigates the benefits of sharing information among supply chain members, especially when that information contains errors. Supply chain information sharing has been shown to reduce firms' operating costs, but it isn't clear how much of this cost reduction is possible when there are errors in the information. We look at operating a multiple stage supply chain in two different ways with respect to information sharing: upstream and downstream information sharing. For each direction of information flow, we consider three scenarios for average system costs comparisons: (1) no information sharing, (2) information sharing, and (3) information sharing with errors. We assume that each level of the supply chain replenishes their inventory based on a fixed period periodic-review policy. We use a discrete event simulation with the following operational factors: costs (holding, and penalty costs) and demand variability. With extensive simulations, this research shows that there are cost saving benefits in the supply chain system from sharing either upstream or downstream information among supply chain members, and that sharing erroneous information can nullify the benefits or even cause cost increases for some operational settings. |
