| Investigation in Supply Chain, as in any other area of scientific knowledge, should offer clear, concrete solutions which may be incorporated, in a more or less near future, to a company's daily running. This dissertation mainly analyses the problem of demand variability and distorted accumulation of inventories (Bullwhip Effect) as a consequence of lack of synchronised information among the agents which integrate the Supply Chain.;These problems have been subject to lengthy study, for they are the cause of serious difficulties to manage demand in supply chains. Present-day technology has granted access to on-line information, as well as information exchange among different members of a chain. Administrative views have incorporated these technologies and are now seeking bigger agility in those companies which have correctly identified the Supply Chain to which they belong. This allows them to be competitive and successfully stand pressure from similar chains present in the global market.;This dissertation, by using System Dynamics Methodology, proposes the creation of a model representing the management process for demand variability and its distorted accumulation of inventories at different links of the Supply Chain. This methodology offers bigger flexibility for combined analysis of different parameters, as well as easier application.;To construct the proposed model the starting point is identifying the different elements which integrate the system subject to modelling. Once the system's cause-effect diagram has been drawn (common practice in System Dynamics) a number of instruments must be used to re-process those diagrams into richer mathematical objects called dynamic, which may then be programmed in a computer to generate the trajectories which depict the system's behaviour. Those instruments are the variables which appear in a Forrester Diagram.;The main contributions of this dissertation is: Development of a supply chain modelling platform, that is able to take into account real life capacity constraints, fill rates, Bullwhip measure, lost sales, backlogs and the inventory cost related with every level which has been previously modelled. The platform is used to analyze the impact of different supply chain structures and collaboration schemes.;The model also allows finding satisfactory solutions to profitability of operations from the point of view of inventories management, capacity, and materials flow. |
