Utilizing behavioral experiments involving approximately one thousand subjects, we empirically evaluate the relationship between volume flexibility and the Bullwhip Effect (BWE). We not only evaluate differences in the level of BWE, but also differences in associated system performance. We find that systems with hard capacity constraints are effective at limiting BWE, but also produce very poor customer service levels. However, systems with low levels of volume flexibility generate similar performance as fully flexible systems but do so while also generating a lower BWE. In a multi-echelon setting, we show that having partial volume flexibility at the upstream echelon helps in reducing order variance, with no significant drop in service level in the supply chain. This is particularly useful in those manufacturing environments which prefer stable orders for production planning without affecting the downstream customer service level. Counterintuitively, both experiments uncovered instances of irrational behavior where participants invoked flexibility in ways that did not always enhance system performance. In addition, these experiments also established enhancements in BWE and system performance through introduction of incremental volume flexibility into upstream echelon of a supply chain.

中文翻译：

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供应链中容量和灵活性约束对牛鞭效应的系统性能影响

利用涉及大约一千名受试者的行为实验，我们凭经验评估音量灵活性和牛鞭效应 (BWE) 之间的关系。我们不仅评估 BWE 水平的差异，还评估相关系统性能的差异。我们发现具有硬容量限制的系统在限制 BWE 方面是有效的，但也会产生非常差的客户服务水平。然而，体积灵活性低的系统会产生与完全灵活的系统相似的性能，但同时也会产生较低的 BWE。在多梯队环境中，我们表明，上游梯队的部分数量灵活性有助于减少订单差异，而供应链中的服务水平不会显着下降。这在那些喜欢稳定订单进行生产计划而不影响下游客户服务水平的制造环境中特别有用。与直觉相反，这两个实验都发现了非理性行为的实例，参与者以并不总能提高系统性能的方式调用灵活性。此外，这些实验还通过将增量容量灵活性引入供应链的上游梯队，提高了 BWE 和系统性能。