| This research consolidates the existing research efforts concerning information sharing and physical flow coordination in supply chain management, investigates the value of information sharing, and integrated decision-making in a make-to-order vendor manufacturer environment. We accomplish this by developing alternative information sharing/coordination strategies, mathematically formulating the strategies, developing rolling horizon algorithms for implementation, solving the problems to optimality and conducting experiments to test the impact of environmental factors. Documenting the value is crucial as it encourages alliances, strategic relationships between channel members, and information technology investment. The results indicate a 47.5 percent system cost improvement from full information sharing and system wide coordination in supply chains. Insight provided by the experimental problems provide an economic justification of the value of information sharing and coordination in supply chains, particularly in a vendor-manufacturer relationship. The results also aid managers to focus on better ways of improving cost performances in supply chains. We also study alternative information technology strategies for transaction processing (purchase order and invoice processing) and investigate the impact of these strategies on supply chain performance at the system and individual partner level. |
