Production/inventory control with advance demand information

Abstract

Recent advances in information technology, such as EDI and web-based platforms, have made information exchange between supply chain partners cheaper and more secure. These advances also arrived at a time when the concepts of collaboration and partnership within supply chains are being recognized and developed. The principle premises of such concepts are rather simple and natural: more collaboration and more shared information should lead to better supply chain performance. The details, on the other hand, on how to achieve better performance through increased collaboration and information are not always trivial. This chapter focuses on the following particular issue regarding increased information exchange: how should advance demand information be used to increase performance in production/inventory systems and what is the extent of the performance increase that can be expected?