The Cost Impact of Information Delay in a Supply Chain

In this paper, the impact of information sharing, possibly with some delay, on costs in a simple supply chain in which there are two participants, a single retailer and a single manufacturer, is considered. When participants in the supply chain do not use fully integrated EDI, some delay associated with information sharing is inevitable. A mathematical model that allows us to quantify the cost incurred by the manufacturer in the supply chain under information sharing, possibly with some delay, vs. no information sharing is presented. From this model, some managerial implications are gleaned.