Towards better coordination of the supply chain

This paper analytically examines the improvement of supply chain coordinati on (SCC) through more effective information exchange and consistent forecas ting. It shows the negative impact that independent actions taken by member s of a conventional supply chain typically have on order release volatility and forecast error volatility. Such increases in variation are argued to p ose tremendous planning and utilization problems. This paper demonstrates w hen and to what extent such fluctuations can be controlled through collabor ation within the supply chain. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights re served.