Value of information sharing in a multiple producers–distributor supply chain

This paper analyzes the coordination and the value of information sharing in a multiple producers–distributor supply chain, which can be viewed as a special multi-mode resource constrained project scheduling problem. In this problem, many independent manufacturers, which can produce different types of products, coordinate with a resource manager, who provides different types of resources (vehicles) to deliver products to the customers. The impact of sharing four vital pieces of information of this supply chain—(i) full information, (ii) production capacity, (iii) resource constraints, and (iv) basic information—is examined. Five solution approaches which share different levels of information are employed to solve this problem. Results and analysis based on extensive computational experiments with different solution approaches are presented. The results show that information-sharing significantly contributes to the strengthening of coordination in a decentralized supply chain. The basic information is found to have highest impact and the resource constraint information has a higher impact than the production capacity information.