Dynamic Complexities in a Supply Chain System with Lateral Transshipments

The horizontal interaction between retailers, coupled with replenishment rules and time delays, makes the dynamics in supply chain systems highly complicated. This paper aims to explore the impacts of lateral transshipments on the stability, bullwhip effect, and other performance measurements in the context of a two-tiered supply chain system composed of one supplier and two retailers. In particular, we developed a unified discrete-time state space model to address two different scenarios of placing orders. Analytical stability results are derived, through which we found that inappropriate lateral transshipment policies readily destabilize the supply chain system. Moreover, the lead time of lateral transshipments further complicates the stability problem. Theoretical results are validated through simulation experiments and the influences of system parameters on performance measures are investigated numerically. Numerical simulations show that lateral transshipments help improve the customer service level for both retailers. It is also interesting to observe that the demand of the two retailers can be satisfied even if only one retailer places orders from the upstream supplier.

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