Demand levelling is a technique to reeduce the fluctuations in demand for product which occur both within companies and along supply chains.
Reducing lead times and batch sizes are two beneficial changes that smooth the flow of products to downstream activities (or customers) and the sharing of information, for example through visual control techniques and open-book management helps prevent random fluctuations in demand becoming amplified down the supply chain.
Open-book management
open-book management is the sharing of financial information relevant to design, scheduling, and production tasks with employees of the firm and with suppliers and distributors up and down the supply chain.
