Sharing Breakdown Information in Supply Chain Systems: An Agent-Based Modelling Approach

Abstract

Sharing the different types of information among Supply Chain (SC) agents has often been cited as a way to reduce the SC risks. In this paper, an agent-based representation of the Beer Game Model (BGM) is used to demonstrate how disruptions, occurring to the factory of a SC, can negatively affect its overall performance, and how sharing the factory disruption information can effectively help blocking the evolution of risk in the SC and improve its performance. The BGM is extended in this research to include two factories. The concept of Reverse Information Sharing (RIS) is introduced as a mechanism for sharing the breakdown information. The results show a significant reduction in the cost of the SC and each of its agents due to the RIS. In addition, the analysis shows that the RIS significance is getting larger with the increase of the disruption frequency.

Keywords: Reverse Information Sharing, Beer Game, Agent-Based Modeling, Supply Chain Risk.