Perspectives on the Bullwhip Effect in Supply Chains

An efficient supply chain management system is the key to running product- and service-oriented businesses. In a perfect world, an efficient supply chain provides accurate information to all supply chain players from the downstream (retailers) to the upstream (supplier’s suppliers). This helps in ensuring an uninterrupted flow of products and services to the customer. The supply chain is usually a complex network of companies that work together to meet customer demand for a product or service by allowing each company to focus on its specific process to maximize supply chain profit. Uncertainties threaten this coexistence of organizations in a supply chain. Uncertainties such as changes in market conditions and customer demand can lead to inaccurate forecasts and supply chain inefficiencies that may strongly affect a supply chain. The bullwhip effect (BWE) is one such inefficiency. This chapter focuses on the BWE in supply chains. To give the reader an understanding of the BWE, a brief review of some critical perspectives on the BWE in supply chains as well as some proposals discussed in the literature in the recent years has been carried out. The chapter also describes the context within which the BWE has emerged and its characteristics. It also reflects on its relationship with the current trends of sustainability, nonlinear supply chain networks, intangible products (services), monetary and financial issues, competition in supply chains, and the BWE during the COVID-19 pandemic, among other trends, to reveal new research interests on the topic.