Human planners, planning structure, and the vertical bullwhip: IEA 2006 Congress (International Ergonomics Association triennial congress)

In hierarchical production planning structures, decisions by planning entities at the various levels may lead to a planning bullwhip, for example, because of an inappropriate updating frequency of plans. In this planning bullwhip, poor estimates of the lead time and poor actual performance reinforce each other. We study the planning bullwhip in relation to the mitigating role that human planners may play, as the effect very often is originated and amplified by the use of decision support systems. We use the case study methodology. Our findings suggest that especially the planning structure plays a crucial role in enabling humans to mitigate the planning bullwhip.