Home▸Operations Research▸Bullwhip Effect Lab — Order Amplification in a Supply Chain

Bullwhip Effect Lab — Order Amplification in a Supply Chain

Interactive 3D bullwhip-effect simulator: watch small retail-demand noise amplify into wild swings at the factory as orders climb a 4-tier supply chain, and see how lead time, forecast smoothing and safety stock change the amplification ratio.

Operations Research3DModerate60 FPS

A four-tier supply chain — retailer, wholesaler, distributor, factory — each running a real order-up-to inventory policy on exponentially-smoothed demand forecasts. Only the retailer ever sees actual customer demand; every tier upstream reacts only to the order stream from its neighbour below. Watch a small, steady wobble in customer demand climb the chain and turn into large, delayed swings at the factory — the bullwhip effect — and see exactly how lead time, forecast smoothing and safety stock change the amplification ratio.

⚙ Under the hood

A four-tier supply chain (retailer, wholesaler, distributor, factory) each running a real order-up-to inventory policy on smoothed demand forecasts — watch small retail-demand noise amplify into large swings at the factory, the classic bullwhip effect.

supply chainbullwhip effectinventory managementforecastingoperations researchsystems dynamics

3D · Three.js / WebGL renderer · 60 FPS target · runs fully client-side, no install