We study the value of information sharing in a two-stage supply chain with
a single manufacturer and a single retailer in an infinite time horizon, where
the manufacturer has finite production capacity and the retailer faces
independent demand. The manufacturer receives demand information even during
periods of time in which the retailer does not order. Allowing for
time-varying cost functions, our objective is to characterize the impact of
information sharing on the manufacturer's cost and service level. We
develop a new approach to characterize the induced Markov chains under cyclic
order-up-to policy and provide a simple proof for the optimality of
cyclic order-up-to policy for the manufacturer under the average cost
criterion. Using extensive computational analysis, we quantify the
impact of information sharing on the manufacturer's performance in
an infinite time horizon under both i.i.d. demand and independent but
nonstationary demand.