A literature survey of bullwhip effect (2010–2013) according to its causes and evaluation methods

Abstract

An important supply chain research problem is the bullwhip effect (BE). Abundant literature treats the reduction of the BE. In fact, numerous studies have been developed according to various objectives and hypotheses. Despite the widespread literature on this topic, efforts to review and analyze research on BE are very limited. For this reason, this survey paper proposes to classify literature related to this area according to causes of BE and evaluation method. More than 70 papers published on BE studies within 2010-2013 were classified and analyzed. Major findings of this survey include the following. (1) The majority of the articles dealing with simulation method. (2) The choice of the replenishment policy as one of BE causes still not addressed. Finally, this paper briefly discusses some future research directions and some perspectives.