Research on Retailers' Horizontal Information Sharing Strategy for Vendor Managed Inventory Supply Chain

Abstract

Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI) and vertical information sharing strategy of supply chain management are very popular in recent years. This paper explores the horizontal information sharing issues between retailers in VMI. The mathematical model of costs in different parts of supply chain is presented. We analysis the impacts on the cost of the whole supply chain by changing order quantity through numerical examples. The results show that reorder points will decrease by increasing the order quantity, while the total cost of the overall supply chain are not always reduce, no matter how extent the horizontal information shared in retailers.