A BULLV\lHIP EFFECT EXPLORER by

The analysis of the supply chain is one of the most active research areas these days. Recent interest in supply chain management focuses on the bullwhip effect. The bullwhip effect refers to the phenomenon where orders to the supplier tend to have larger variance than sales to the buyer and the distortion propagates upstream in an amplified form. The bullwhip effect is rather difficult to understand, for that reason, a number of researchers designed games. There are several games on the market ranging from manual to computerized versions. The purpose of our game, which is based on a spreadsheet application, is not to focus on the oscillations in orders as such, but to explore the effect on orders of well known inventory policies such as order up to policies, echelon stock policies, etc... We assume in our bullwhip explorer that the members of the game are optimising and rational and that consequently the effect is not the result of "irrational " behavior.