Research review on bullwhip effect controlling methods in a supply chain under uncertainty environments

An important phenomenon in supply chain management, known as the bullwhip effect, suggests that demand uncertainty and variability increases as one moves up a supply chain. The bullwhip effect can greatly decrease the efficiency and profits within a supply chain. So it is very important to reduce or eliminate such phenomenon in supply chain management. There can be much dispute that the bullwhip effect is an phenomenon of importance in supply chain in the field of management research, yet there have been few literature reviews on this topic. This research review addresses supply chain management issues specific to bullwhip effect under uncertainty environment, reviewed and summarized the reasons of producing the bullwhip effect in a supply chain. According to the causes of producing the bullwhip effect and quantifying analysis, some measures for coping with the bullwhip were introduced. So the review provides a systematic overview of bullwhip effect. Our objective is to twofold, namely to enhance the understanding of bullwhip effect by documenting the current state of affairs, and to inspire fruitful future research by describing bullwhip effect phenomenon between relevant managerial issues and available academic literature.