Centralised Demand Information Sharing in Supply Chains: A Consumer Centric Approach

Many companies are embarking on strategies to share consumer sales data among the supply chain members. This is a move away from being ‘customer centric' towards being ‘consumer centric'. Various empirical studies of such supply chains show how such collaboration activities increases forecasting accuracy, thus resulting in better service levels, lower inventory costs and increased revenues. The high savings in cost justifies the implementation of formal information systems and structures to support the collaboration. This research analyses how supply chain collaborations should be conducted through a centralised demand information sharing system.