Multi-agent system for negotiation in virtual supply chain management
Qi You · 2006
A virtual supply chain (VSC) may emerge from the negotiation process among possible supply chain partners with an attempt to achieve the common goals.Successful virtual supply chain management (VSCM) thus highlights the cross-functional integration of key business processes within a company and across the network of companies that comprise the VSC.In the paradigm of multi-agent systems (MASs), a VSC can be viewed as a set of intelligent agents and the interaction among them.In an MAS, functional agents negotiate cooperatively to make decisions so as to fulfill the common goals and own interests.Therefore, an MAS can provide an effective means to manage a VSC through building agents as supply chain partners.This thesis proposes a negotiation-based MAS (NBMAS) for VSCM.The efficient negotiation processes among supply chain partners (agents) are modeled.A prototype of NBMAS for VSCM, which uses Java Development Agent (JADE) software, has been developed and reported in the case study.The results show the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed model for managing supply chains.