Agent-based Supply Chain Research Articles

Specifying the intertwining of cooperation and autonomy in agent-based systems

Cooperation and autonomy are two antagonistic core variables of agent-based systems, and a key challenge in designing such systems is to balance these variables appropriately. This article describes a specification schema called RNS2 that has been developed in response to this challenge. Being formally grounded in deontic logic and informally inspired by social role theory, RNS2 shows several useful features which together make it unique and distinct from related approaches. In particular, RNS2 is highly expressive and allows to specify the intertwining of cooperation and autonomy at a very precise level, and it facilitates the automated detection and resolution of autonomy-induced cooperation conflicts at design time. The application of RNS2 is illustrated in the context of an agent-based supply chain management system.

The architecture and business value of a semi-cooperative, agent-based supply chain management system

Multi-agent systems have the potential to improve supply chain management. The adoption of such systems has been limited, as their design often neglects existing organizational realities and the business value for the various stakeholders is not clear. In this paper, a multi-agent system improving supply chain management is designed and its business value is evaluated. We present the semi-cooperative architecture and evaluate the benefits using agent-based simulation. We found that the multi-agent system increases the level of flexibility in the supply chain and enables supply chain members to become more responsive. This has a positive impact on the ordering lead-time, human processing time, the inventory levels and number of stock-outs.

Agent-based supply chain management parts 1 and 2

Agent-based supply chain management parts 1 and 2

Review of "Dr. Peeling's principles of management

For agent-based supply chain integration & coordination (SCIC), agent architecture is the foundation and core content. In this paper, agent internal architecture and an infrastructure for SCIC are discussed in detail. For agent internal architecture, generic agent internal architecture reference is given and a concrete agent internal architecture for SCIC is put forward. For infrastructure, agent grid technology is introduced into SCIC. At the same time, agent grid technology and SCIC are bridged, and detail analysis is given. Finally, a case study is showed.

Agent architecture for agent-based supply chain integration & coordination

For agent-based supply chain integration & coordination (SCIC), agent architecture is the foundation and core content. In this paper, agent internal architecture and an infrastructure for SCIC are discussed in detail. For agent internal architecture, generic agent internal architecture reference is given and a concrete agent internal architecture for SCIC is put forward. For infrastructure, agent grid technology is introduced into SCIC. At the same time, agent grid technology and SCIC are bridged, and detail analysis is given. Finally, a case study is showed.

Agent-based supply chain management—2: a refinery application

The refinery business involves tasks that span several departments and process large amount of data. Among others, these include crude procurement, logistics and scheduling (storage, distillation units, etc.). Current refinery decision support systems (DSSs) fail to integrate all the decision-making processes of a refinery, to interface with other systems in place, to incorporate dynamic data from various sources and to assist different departments concurrently. In part 1 of this two-part paper, we proposed an agent-based framework for supply chain DSSs. Here, we demonstrate its application through a prototype DSS, called petroleum refinery integrated supply chain modeler and simulator or PRISMS, for crude procurement. PRISMS serves as a central DSS through which all processes of a refinery can be studied and enables integrated decisions with respect to the overall refinery business. In particular, PRISMS can be used to study the effects of internal policies of the refinery and its various departments. We illustrate this through three detailed ‘what-if’ studies that provide an insight into how the business responds to changes in policies, exogenous events and plant modifications.

Commitments for agent-based supply chain management

As supply chain networks are becoming more and more global, process coordination must be considered a crucial point for successful business management. The need for a suitable management and communication framework is thus becoming evident. We already have some examples showing that information sharing is a key-point at certain levels of a supply chain network. As there are several analogies between a company in a business network and an agent, the Multi-Agent System paradigm can be a valid approach for modelling supply chain networks. We consider commitment as a concept that underlies the whole multi-agent environment, that is, an interagent state, reflecting a business relation between two companies that make themselves represented by software agents. We present a data structure for commitments that can be used in the agent-based communication framework for the management of a supply chain. Business partnership between companies leads to the creation of a "channel" through which we can identify three different kinds of flow (products, money and information). We show how commitments that deal with these flows are related to one another and how they can affect the supply chain.

Agent-Based Supply Chain Integration

Supply chain management represents a critical competency in today's fast-paced, global business environment. However, in the current transition from EDI to Web-based supply chain technologies, much of the capability for process integration is being lost. And the integration of buyer and seller supply chain processes is critical for speed and responsiveness in today's hypercompetitive product and service markets. Intelligent agent technology offers the potential to overcome many limitations of current supply chain technologies. This paper presents intelligent supply chain agents that represent and autonomously conduct business on behalf of product users, buyers and vendors. We classify and present numerous extant agent applications and extend a technological framework to compare and contrast intelligent agents with other classes of information technology. We then describe an agent-based supply chain process design, along with its developmental techniques, and the structure and behavior of an agent federation used for integration in a major enterprise. We present results of this exploratory research in terms of technical feasibility and process performance in the enterprise context. This work is novel in that it integrates process-level knowledge from operational enterprises with distributed agent technologies. And it makes a contribution by demonstrating how agent-based supply chain integration can be effected along a large-scale, operational, inter-organizational process.

Agent-based supply chain disintermediation versus re-intermediation: economic and technological perspectives

One important stream of information systems research addresses the role and future of supply chain and market intermediaries. But whereas many researchers hypothesize a trend toward disintermediation—principally enabled by information technology (IT)—others proffer theoretical arguments for IT-enabled re-intermediation. With regard to IT, it is particularly unclear whether the emerging technology associated with software agents is better suited to enable supply chain disintermediation or re-intermediation. And if agent technology is better suited to either disintermediate or re-intermediate supply chain activities, can we say this is always the case? Or will certain contingency factors intervene in various circumstances to suggest agent-based disintermediation over re-intermediation in some cases and vice versa in others? The research described in this paper takes some first steps toward addressing these questions. We first draw from the intermediation economics literature to summarize some of the key works and arguments for and against IT-based dis/re-intermediation, and we use this discussion to outline a preliminary set of conditions favoring agent application in such roles along the supply chain. We then draw from the agent technology literature to summarize key capabilities associated with extant agent technologies, and we compare such emerging IT with more conventional information systems and applications. Guided by this background of intermediation theory and extant agent capability, we describe a proof-of-concept multi-agent system called ‘the Intelligent Mall’ in the context of supply chain dis/re-intermediation. We use this implemented multi-agent system to show how it reflects current agent technology, and we identify the contingent economic conditions that can be satisfied through this implemented system. The paper then closes, as we identify a several new lines of research stemming from this investigation. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.