IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/proeco/v128y2010i1p261-268.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Managing backlog variation in order fulfillment: The case of Internet retailers

Author

Listed:
  • Yan, Tingting
  • Rabinovich, Elliot
  • Dooley, Kevin
  • Evers, Philip T.

Abstract

Matching supply, demand, and capacity is made more costly and less efficient when demand variation is amplified into work-in-process, or backlog, variation. Existing research has focused on managing variations in backlog quantity. This paper extends that research by examining how variation in fulfillment leadtimes can be managed effectively in the context of Internet retailing. Computer simulation, grounded in actual operational data, is used to test hypotheses concerning the links between order fulfillment rules and backlog variation. Two rules, based on due dates for the release of inventory and inventory thresholds, are found to be effective in controlling backlog variation amplification through the accumulation of orders or the postponement of order fulfillment. The due date release rules always generate the highest fill rate and timeliness in fulfillment, and, in most cases, the lowest total costs. This work highlights the need to consider both quantity variation and leadtime variation when managing order fulfillment systems.

Suggested Citation

  • Yan, Tingting & Rabinovich, Elliot & Dooley, Kevin & Evers, Philip T., 2010. "Managing backlog variation in order fulfillment: The case of Internet retailers," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 128(1), pages 261-268, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:proeco:v:128:y:2010:i:1:p:261-268
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0925-5273(10)00267-7
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Manuel P. Baganha & Morris A. Cohen, 1998. "The Stabilizing Effect of Inventory in Supply Chains," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 46(3-supplem), pages 72-83, June.
    2. Philip Heidelberger & Peter D. Welch, 1983. "Simulation Run Length Control in the Presence of an Initial Transient," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 31(6), pages 1109-1144, December.
    3. Mahar, Stephen & Bretthauer, Kurt M. & Venkataramanan, M.A., 2009. "The value of virtual pooling in dual sales channel supply chains," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 192(2), pages 561-575, January.
    4. Hau L. Lee & V. Padmanabhan & Seungjin Whang, 1997. "Information Distortion in a Supply Chain: The Bullwhip Effect," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 43(4), pages 546-558, April.
    5. Rogelio Oliva & John D. Sterman, 2001. "Cutting Corners and Working Overtime: Quality Erosion in the Service Industry," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 47(7), pages 894-914, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. MacCarthy, Bart L. & Zhang, Lina & Muyldermans, Luc, 2019. "Best Performance Frontiers for Buy-Online-Pickup-in-Store order fulfilment," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 211(C), pages 251-264.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ma, Yungao & Wang, Nengmin & He, Zhengwen & Lu, Jizhou & Liang, Huigang, 2015. "Analysis of the bullwhip effect in two parallel supply chains with interacting price-sensitive demands," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 243(3), pages 815-825.
    2. Jaksic, Marko & Rusjan, Borut, 2008. "The effect of replenishment policies on the bullwhip effect: A transfer function approach," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 184(3), pages 946-961, February.
    3. Ouyang, Yanfeng & Daganzo, Carlos, 2008. "Robust tests for the bullwhip effect in supply chains with stochastic dynamics," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 185(1), pages 340-353, February.
    4. Yanfeng Ouyang & Carlos Daganzo, 2006. "Characterization of the Bullwhip Effect in Linear, Time-Invariant Supply Chains: Some Formulae and Tests," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 52(10), pages 1544-1556, October.
    5. Stephen C. Graves, 1999. "A Single-Item Inventory Model for a Nonstationary Demand Process," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 1(1), pages 50-61.
    6. QU, Zhan & RAFF, Horst, 2023. "Two-part tariffs, inventory stockpiling, and the bullwhip effect," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 308(1), pages 201-214.
    7. Fangruo Chen, 1999. "Decentralized Supply Chains Subject to Information Delays," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 45(8), pages 1076-1090, August.
    8. Ying Rong & Lawrence V. Snyder & Zuo‐Jun Max Shen, 2017. "Bullwhip and reverse bullwhip effects under the rationing game," Naval Research Logistics (NRL), John Wiley & Sons, vol. 64(3), pages 203-216, April.
    9. Anantaram Balakrishnan & Joseph Geunes & Michael S. Pangburn, 2004. "Coordinating Supply Chains by Controlling Upstream Variability Propagation," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 6(2), pages 163-183, July.
    10. Luong, Huynh Trung & Phien, Nguyen Huu, 2007. "Measure of bullwhip effect in supply chains: The case of high order autoregressive demand process," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 183(1), pages 197-209, November.
    11. Frank Chen & Jennifer K. Ryan & David Simchi‐Levi, 2000. "The impact of exponential smoothing forecasts on the bullwhip effect," Naval Research Logistics (NRL), John Wiley & Sons, vol. 47(4), pages 269-286, June.
    12. Disney, S.M. & Farasyn, I. & Lambrecht, M. & Towill, D.R. & de Velde, W. Van, 2006. "Taming the bullwhip effect whilst watching customer service in a single supply chain echelon," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 173(1), pages 151-172, August.
    13. Morris A. Cohen & Panos Kouvelis, 2021. "Revisit of AAA Excellence of Global Value Chains: Robustness, Resilience, and Realignment," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 30(3), pages 633-643, March.
    14. Piramuthu, Selwyn, 2005. "Knowledge-based framework for automated dynamic supply chain configuration," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 165(1), pages 219-230, August.
    15. Ouyang, Yanfeng & Li, Xiaopeng, 2010. "The bullwhip effect in supply chain networks," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 201(3), pages 799-810, March.
    16. Ouyang, Yanfeng, 2007. "The effect of information sharing on supply chain stability and the bullwhip effect," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 182(3), pages 1107-1121, November.
    17. Özelkan, Ertunga C. & Lim, Churlzu & Adnan, Ziaul Haq, 2018. "Conditions of reverse bullwhip effect in pricing under joint decision of replenishment and pricing," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 200(C), pages 207-223.
    18. Rachel Croson & Karen Donohue, 2002. "Experimental Economics and Supply-Chain Management," Interfaces, INFORMS, vol. 32(5), pages 74-82, October.
    19. Udenio, Maximiliano & Fransoo, Jan C. & Peels, Robert, 2015. "Destocking, the bullwhip effect, and the credit crisis: Empirical modeling of supply chain dynamics," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 160(C), pages 34-46.
    20. Tangsucheeva, Rattachut & Prabhu, Vittaldas, 2014. "Stochastic financial analytics for cash flow forecasting," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 158(C), pages 65-76.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:proeco:v:128:y:2010:i:1:p:261-268. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/ijpe .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.