Anwendung der agentenbasierten Simulation für eine Analyse des Bullwhip-Effektes in Supply Chains
A supply chain (SC) can be defined as “a network of different organizations, which are connected by the flow of materials, information and financial resources in various processes and activities, producing values in form of products and services and are in the hand of the end consumer.” [1] Within this context, the Bullwhip Effect (BWE) describes the phenomenon that the variation of demand increases up the supply chain from customer to supplier[2]. The work of Forrester[2]. is generally regarded as the first to explore demand variance amplification. From that time (around 56 years ago) up to now researchers look for reasons and attempt to find countermeasures for the BWE.
The objective of the thesis is to develop a configurable supply chain simulation which reproduces the Bullwhip Effect and can be used to identify the impact, special characteristics have on it.
The implementation will be performed with a suitable Framework for gent-based simulations. To analyze the effect, different supply chain structures, inventory policies and the sharing of customer demand have on the BWE, experiments will be performed in different configurations afterwards.