Commitments for agent-based supply chain management

ABSTRACT

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.

REFERENCES

• 1: Bond, A. H. and Gasser, L. 1988. An analysis of problems and research in distributed artificial intelligence. In Readings in Distributed Artificial Intelligence, A. H. Bond and L. Gasser, Eds. Morgan Kaufman Publishers, 3-35.
• 2: Stephen P. Bradley , Richard L. Nolan, Sense and Respond: Capturing Value in the Network Era, Harvard Business School Press, Boston, MA, 1998
• 3: Bratman, M. E. 1987. Intention, Plans, and Practical Reason. Harvard University Press.
• 4: Chellas, B. 1980. Modal Logic: An Introduction. Cambridge University Press.
• 5: Fisher, M. L. 1997. What is the right supply chain for your product? Harvard Business Review.
• 6: Nicoletta Fornara , Marco Colombetti, Operational specification of a commitment-based agent communication language, Proceedings of the first international joint conference on Autonomous agents and multiagent systems: part 2, July 15-19, 2002, Bologna, Italy [doi>10.1145/544862.544868]
• 7: Anuj K. Jain , Manuel Aparico, IV , Munindar P. Singh, Agents for process coherence in virtual enterprises, Communications of the ACM, v.42 n.3, p.62-69, March 1999 [doi>10.1145/295685.295702]
• 8: Lee, H. L. and Billington, C. 1995. The evolution of SCM models and practice at Hewlett-Packard. Interfaces 25, 5 (September-October), 42-63.
• 9: Hau L. Lee , V. Padmanabhan , Seungjin Whang, Information distortion in a supply chain: the bullwhip effect, Management Science, v.43 n.4, p.546-558, April 1997 [doi>10.1287/mnsc.43.4.546]
• 10: David S. Linthicum, Enterprise application integration, Addison-Wesley Longman Ltd., Essex, UK, 2000
• 11: Lutz, J. C. 2000. Eai architecture patterns. EAI Journal 1, 3 (March).
• 12: P. D. O'Brien , M. E. Wiegand, Agent based process management: applying intelligent agents to workflow, The Knowledge Engineering Review, v.13 n.2, p.161-174, July 1998 [doi>10.1017/S0269888998002070]
• 13: Pyke, D. F. and Cohen, M. A. 1994. Multiproduct integrated production distribution systems. European Journal of Operations Research 74, 1, 18-49.
• 14: Rao, A. S. and Georgeff, M. P. 1991. Modeling rational agents within a BDI-architecture. In Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Principles of Knowledge Representation and Reasoning, J. Allen, R. Fikes, and E. Sandewall, Eds. Morgan Kaufmann publishers, 473-484.
• 15: Roboam, M., Sycara, K., and Fox, M. 1991. Organization modeling as a platform for multi-agent manufacturing systems. In Proceedings of the Fourth IFIP Conference on Computer Applications in Production and Engineering. Bordeaux, France.
• 16: Rousseau, J. J. 1762. Du Contrat Social, ou Principes du Droit Politique. Marc Michel Rey, Amsterdam, NL.
• 17: Shaw, M. J. 1999. Web-based enterprise resource planning. In Enterprise Management and Resource Planning: Methods, Tools and Architectures (EMPRS'99) Proceedings. Venice, Italy.
• 18: Shepherdson, J. W., Thompson, S. G., and Odgers, B. R. 1999. Cross organizational workflow co-ordinated by software agents. In Workshop on Workflow Interoperability at The International Joint Conference on Work Activities Co-ordination and Collaboration. San Francisco, CA.
• 19: Munindar P. Singh, Agent Communication Languages: Rethinking the Principles, Computer, v.31 n.12, p.40-47, December 1998 [doi>10.1109/2.735849]
• 20: Strader, T. J., Lin, F., and Shaw, M. J. 1998. Simulation of order fulfilment in divergent assembly supply chains. Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation 1, 2.
• 21: Swaminathan, J. M., Smith, S. F., and Sadeh, N. M. 1998. Modeling supply chain dynamics: A multiagent approach. Decision Sciences 29, 3.
• 22: Tan, G. W., Shaw, M. J., and Fulkerson, W. 2000. Web-based supply chain management. In Hanbook on Electronic Commerce, M. J. Shaw, R. Blanning, T. Strader, and A. Whinston, Eds. Springer-Verlag.
• 23: Wooldridge, M. 2000. Reasoning about Rational Agents. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.
• 24: Wooldridge, M. and Jennings, N. R. 1995. Intelligent agents: Theory and practice. The Knowledge Engineering Review 10, 2, 115-152.
• 25: Yang, B. R. 2000. Supply chain management: Developing visible design rules across organizations. In Hanbook on Electronic Commerce, M. J. Shaw, R. Blanning, T. Strader, and A. Whinston, Eds. Springer-Verlag.

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  K. Computing Milieux
  K.4 COMPUTERS AND SOCIETY
      K.4.4 Electronic Commerce
          Subjects: Distributed commercial transactions

Additional Classification:
  D. Software
  D.2 SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
        D.2.11 Software Architectures
            Subjects: Domain-specific architectures

  H. Information Systems
  H.4 INFORMATION SYSTEMS APPLICATIONS
      H.4.3 Communications Applications

          Nouns: Internet
  H.5 INFORMATION INTERFACES AND PRESENTATION (I.7)
      H.5.3 Group and Organization Interfaces
          Subjects: Computer-supported cooperative work; Web-based interaction

  I. Computing Methodologies
  I.2 ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
        I.2.11 Distributed Artificial Intelligence
            Subjects: Intelligent agents

  K. Computing Milieux
  K.4 COMPUTERS AND SOCIETY
      K.4.4 Electronic Commerce
          Subjects: Electronic data interchange (EDI)

General Terms:
Design, Economics, Management, Standardization

Keywords:
commitment, software agents, supply chain