A supply chain performance analysis of a pull inspired supply strategy faced to demand uncertainties

Guillaume Marquès (1, 2) , Jacques Lamothe (2) , Caroline Thierry (3, 4) , Didier Gourc (2)

1 IRIT - Institut de recherche en informatique de Toulouse
2 CGI - Centre Génie Industriel
3 IRIT-ADRIA - Argumentation, Décision, Raisonnement, Incertitude et Apprentissage
4 UT2J - Université Toulouse - Jean Jaurès

Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI) is currently seen as a short-term replenishment pull system. Moreover, VMI is usually synonymous with a distribution context and stable demand. However, industrial partners are faced with uncertainty in the context of a B to B relationship. Thus, an adaptation of the actors' planning processes is needed and the question is posed of the interest of VMI in a context of uncertain demand. The purpose of this paper is firstly to analyze the link between VMI and pull logic. Secondly, we explore the extension of VMI notions to the relationship between industrial partners and we confront VMI with uncertain demand in terms of trend, vision of the trend and variability in order to verify the usual stable demand assumption. We also present an integration of VMI into a simulation tool called LogiRisk that we have developed for the evaluation of risks of in supply chain collaboration policies, and a small case study.

Mots clés: Pull; Simulation; Uncertainty; Vendor Managed Inventory; Risk

Domaines: Autre; Analyse fonctionnelle [math.FA]

Guillaume Marquès, Jacques Lamothe, Caroline Thierry, Didier Gourc. A supply chain performance analysis of a pull inspired supply strategy faced to demand uncertainties. Journal of Intelligent Manufacturing, 2012, 23 (1), pp.91-108. ⟨10.1007/s10845-009-0337-z⟩. ⟨emse-00682724⟩