a tiny wobble at the customer end becomes a stampede at the factory end.
means small demand fluctuations at the retail level get amplified into wild swings in orders as they travel up the supply chain to distributors, manufacturers, and raw material suppliers.
from named for how a flick of the wrist at the handle turns into a violent crack at the tip of a bullwhip, first formally studied by procter and gamble in the 1990s while investigating why diaper orders swung so wildly despite steady baby-birth-rate demand.
procter gamble pampers — the 1990s case study that named the phenomenon
toilet paper panic 2020 — pandemic hoarding triggered massive overordering up the chain
semiconductor shortage 2021 — auto makers overcorrected orders, causing years of chip whiplash