What are the root causes of these difficulties

1. Please work on the Simulation Beer Game

In this fast-paced, multiplayer simulation, students experience the effects of a supply chain dynamic called the "bullwhip" effect. Small changes in customer demand cause increasing oscillations in ordering patterns and inventory levels moving down the supply chain away from the customer. Students play 1 of 4 roles in a root beer supply chain: factory, distributor, wholesaler, or retailer. In each simulated week, they must examine inventory, anticipate demand, and send orders to the adjacent connection in the supply chain. Each student attempts to minimize inventory carrying costs while avoiding costly inventory shortages. Students must make rapid ordering decisions while dealing with limited information, a lack of demand visibility, and shipping delays. Faculty can configure different supply chain scenarios for students to help them explore the root causes of the bullwhip effect while enabling discussion of techniques for controlling it. A single-player version is also available.

Please answer the following questions:

1. Project some of the graphs and show the results. The column of inventory backlog charts shows the materials flow between the four supply chain roles and the column of orders shows the information flow.

2. Why would you go into backlog?

3. Why would you accumulate excess inventory?

4. Please identify common elements of the inventory/backlog graphs. What are the phenomena you observed?

5. What are the root causes of these difficulties?

6. What are backlog costs? What do they correspond to in real life?

In your submission, you must:
o Please submit your report in MS Word.