Decision support systems and the coordination of supply consortium partners

Abstract

Abstract We propose to enhance decision support systems (DSS) by coordination capabilities to align the decision making of consortium partners for improving the process quality in volatile process environments. In computer simulation experiments, we reveal conceptional shortcomings of traditional DSS if unforeseen process-threatening events like unexpected workloads have to be handled by a consortium. It is demonstrated for a transportation process planning scenario that a process quality increase is achieved if a DSS is extended by components that align the process-related decision making of legally independent supply consortium partners. The central idea proposed to add coordination capabilities to DSS is to temporarily adjust decision models of subordinate consortium partners to the fulfillment degree of consortium objectives in order to establish a coordinated decision making.