Sensitivity analysis of the bullwhip effect in supply chains with time delay

ABSTRACT

The bullwhip effect (BWE) is a major challenge engineers facing in the industry. From the time and economic point of view, it is important to determine stability regions, where the bullwhip effect does not occur. In this paper, we designed a structure for optimal regulation of the BWE with Network Inverse Data Envelopment Analysis (IDEA) approach. The results indicated that time can negatively affect the magnitude of the bullwhip effect. So, the effect of time and delays should be considered in the BWE score. There are two modes: (1) the RBWE occurs at this interval, where the proposed network was able to regulate and control the RBWE; (2) the RBWE does not occur at this interval, where the stability area was obtained to ensure that the manager can change the inputs or outputs according to his policies, in this area with no regard to the occurrence of the RBWE. Finally, two numerical examples indicated the method efficiency for managing the RBWE in the proposed network supply chain.

KEYWORDS:

• Supply chain
• Bullwhip effect
• Network IDEA
• Sensitivity analysis
• Time delay

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Sajjad Aslani Khiavi

Sajjad Aslani Khiavi was born in Meshkinshahr, Iran, in 1984. He received the B.Sc. degree from the University of Mohaghegh Ardebil, Iran, in 2007, and the M.Sc. degree from the Islamic Azad University of Tabriz, Iran, in 2009, both in Applied Mathematics (Operation Research). He received the Ph.D. degree in Operation Research (Control and Optimization) in 2019 from the Payame Noor University, Tehran, Iran. His main research interests include Data Envelopment Analysis, Supply Chain Management, Control Engineering, Optimization, and Estimation Algorithms. He is currently M.Sc student (Aerospace Engineering – Control) in the Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Tabriz.

Farzad Hashemzadeh

Farzad Hashemzadeh was born in Makou, Iran, in 1981. He received the B.Sc. degree in biomedical engineering from the Amirkabir University of Technology, Tehran, Iran, in 2003, the M.Sc. degree in control engineering from the University of Tehran, Tehran, in 2006, and the Ph.D. degree in control engineering from the University of Tabriz, Tabriz, Iran in 2012. In 2012, he joined the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Tabriz. His current research interests include teleoperation, network control, and multiagent systems.

Hamid Khaloozadeh

Hamid Khaloozadeh received his BSc degree in Control Engineering from Sharif University of Technology (Tehran, Iran), in 1990, the M.Sc. degree in Control Engineering from K.N. Toosi University of Technology (Tehran, Iran), in 1993, and the Ph.D. degree in Systems and Control Engineering from Tarbiat Modarres University (Tehran, Iran), in 1998. Since 1998 to 2004 he was a faculty member at Ferdowsi University of Mashhad (Mashhad, Iran). He is currently a professor teaches in the Department of Systems and Control Engineering in K.N. Toosi University of Technology. His interest area is System Identification, Optimal Control, Adaptive Control, Stochastic Estimation and Control, Digital Control, Nonlinear Modeling, and Time Series Analysis.