Evaluation for the Value of Information Sharing in a Seasonal Supply Chain

This paper presents evaluation for the value of information sharing in a seasonal supply chain. In most of the previous research, a evaluation for the value of information sharing for cases of non-seasonal demand processes is investigated. We consider a two echelon supply chain which consists of one supplier and one retailer. The customer demand at the retailer is assumed to follow a SARMA process including marketing action that cannot be deduced from other parameters of the demand process. Both the supplier and the retailer employ order-up-to policy in order to replenish their inventory. Three levels of information sharing are given. The results for the optimal inventory policy under three levels of information sharing are compared and analyzed through numerical experiment. Then, we show that information sharing has some sort of beneficial effect on a seasonal supply chain performance