Utilising a production system archetype to attenuate bullwhip in a grocery supply chain
Abstract
The Inventory and Order-Based Production Control System (IOBPCS) is a generic model of industrial ordering practice. It has been used for many years as a test bed for exploring the dynamic performance of production planning and inventory control systems. The aim of this paper is to show how a complex system currently in use in the consumer goods sector can be represented by this generic archetype and the dynamic performance improved through simple changes inspired by the IOBPCS model. To do this, a multi-stage modelling approach was carried out, including interviews, block diagram formulation and the development of a spreadsheet model of the system. Potential improvements were incorporated into the model to analyse the impact on performance measures such as bullwhip and availability. The spreadsheet model identified potential bullwhip reductions of 70% for high-volume products. We show that the simplest improvements are often the most effective and that experience learnt from simple generic models can be applied to even the most complex of systems to deliver meaningful real-world results.