The Supply Chain Management And The "Bull-Whip Effect": An Empirical Analysis

The current international environment, that involves company’s development, deals with the continuous strategies and process updating, in order to match the larger and larger flexibility and variability of the market. Companies have been, indeed, promoters and "subordinates", at the same time, of an operations integration mechanism, that has transformed several company processes from stand-alone entities to interrelated Supply Chain activities. Effects from this strategic change can be framed in a two-fold picture:on one side, integration reinforced companies to stem against the Crisis’consequences. However, on the other one, single activities entailed wrong practices, that, if not fixed before integration, are commonly amplified through the so called "Bull-Whip Effect" along the Supply Chain. Effects record may be shown, over the short term, as a bottom line’s loss, as well as, a threat against the company’s customer relationship, over the long run. A significant instrument to show this effect is the Sales Forecasting and Planning Process; it is recognized as one of the most relevant issues in the integration of operations, under low accuracy conditions.The thesis aims to assess whether, and through which elements, "Bull-Whip Effect" is really able to amplify mistakes, caused by wrong practices. The empirical analysis tries to validate a potential linear correlation between a manufacturing company’s negative results and Forecasts "Bull-Whipped" errors. Then, we tried to estimate elements on which we need to be more focused, in order to transform them in key success factors and reduce "Bull-Whip" consequences. A "Big Platform" solution, at the end of the project, is suggested to integrate, in an efficient way, the majority of operations and systems across the Supply Chain levels.