Health Pharma: managing supply chain

The case deals with the Bullwhip phenomena that can be observed in a supply chain.

This case is suitable for all levels of students, undergraduate MBA to Executive MBA classes and practitioners. Assignment questions are designed from the perspective of teaching this case to a business student audience. The case is ideally suited for a supply chain management course and can be introduced to demonstrate the bullwhip effect in an operations management course.

Set in May 2011, the case presents the discussions in the meeting summoned by Mr Srinivas, the director (technical) of Health Pharma (not the name of a real organization) in response to the huge losses faced by the organization in the last financial year. The discussions point to the inability of the organization to appropriately forecast demand across the different echelons and also absence of information transparency, leading to the loss. The catastrophe indicated the need to adopt an ERP solution, which was earlier overlooked by Health Pharma management.

These are an introduction to the concepts of the bullwhip effect and the case presents a managerial solution to the supply chain problem demonstrated.

Teaching notes are available for facilitating the instructor to present and discuss the case in a classroom setting.