"Buffer Inventory plus Information Sharing" Strategy for Retailers in Two-Level Fresh Supply Chain

In the supply chain of fresh agricultural products in China, there are huge commodity losses during the transportation and storage of agricultural products due to limitations in cold chain logistics technology, which affects the performance of the fresh supply chain. This paper aims to improve the accuracy in forecasting market demand and reduce inventory by studying the impact of information sharing strategies on inventory and revenue at all levels of the supply chain, by establishing a system dynamics model that analyzes the capability of information sharing to reduce the expected inventory of suppliers and retailers, and by examining the impact of information sharing on demand forecasting accuracy and inventory stability. Results show that the strategy of information sharing combined with setting the buffer inventory can better improve the performance of the fresh produce supply chain.