Impact of Supply Chain Practices on Mitigating the Bullwhip Effect

Despite the extant literature on the Bullwhip Effect, traced over half a decade ago, fast-moving consumer goods supply chains continue to haemorrhage from the Bullwhip Effect. Product diversification, a short product lifecycle and a mismatch between demand and supply characterize the FMCG industry. Unilever is an FMCG company that has equally suffered from the blunts of BWE. To mitigate the undesirous BWE, an array of supply chain practices were introduced. Notably, there is collaboration and technology adoption in their supply chain. Since then, to the best of the author's knowledge, no known empirical research has ever been conducted to empirically evaluate the impact of these practices in mitigating BWE. The study was premised on this background. Further, the study adopted a mixed methods approach to conduct exploratory research to conduct an impact evaluation study on the effect of S.C. practices on the mitigation of the BWE. The study adopted a quasi-experimental research design. The study formulated a working hypothesis that guided the study. The sample was selected using snowballing. Recall questions were used to establish the baseline of the study. Primary data was collected using a questionnaire and triangulated with an in-depth interview. A paired sample t-test was used to measure the impact of BWE, and an interview was administered to 32 respondents where the theoretical saturation was reached. Emerging analytical categories were recorded in memos. Given the study's findings, the study concluded that S.C. collaboration and technology adoption greatly impacted the mitigation of the BWE.