Simulation Study of Two Supply Chain Collaboration Programs

Purpose – This study examines how consignment and Vendor-Managed Inventory perform as supply chain collaboration programs. By using three key collaborative features, this study defines the collaboration programs and develops theoretical models of different supply chain systems. Research design, data and methodology – This study conducts sophisticated analysis on the supply chain systems by applying simulation modeling based on time-phased operations. The simulation model represents a two-stage supply chain system where a supplier sells a single item to a buyer, and it incorporates various operations. Results – In general, the simulation outcomes support that more advanced collaboration programs outperform less advanced ones. The analysis on the simulation outcomes identifies the significant value of information sharing in both collaboration programs. The specific conditions where the particular collaboration system outperforms the others are recognized. Conclusions – The outcome of this study supports that the supply chain system can improve its performance by having more collaborative features. This study provides business practitioners with guidelines to identify the circumstances that the specific collaboration program can fully exploit its advantages