Simulation based evaluation of information-centric supply chains

In this paper, we evaluate, via the use of simulation, information-centric design of three supply chains that are ubiquitous in operations management literature. With emphasis on inventories, we show how such a redesign of the supply chains can significantly enhance the benefit from information flows that are commonplace in the current business world. The underlying analysis is in the realm of stochastic non-stationary capacitated inventory control and the mathematical intractability behooves us to make extensive use of simulation. We postulate that the lack of such information centric re-designing of supply chains is one of the main reasons behind the failure, reported in popular press, of most information gathering projects in the industry.