Multi Agent Systems in Logistics: A Literature and State-of-the-art Review

Based on a literature survey, we aim to answer our main question: “How should we plan and execute logistics in supply chains that aim to meet today’s requirements, and how can we support such planning and execution using IT?†Today’s requirements in supply chains include inter-organizational collaboration and more responsive and tailored supply to meet specific demand. Enterprise systems fall short in meeting these requirements The focus of planning and execution systems should move towards an inter-enterprise and event-driven mode. Inter-organizational systems may support planning going from supporting information exchange and henceforth enable synchronized planning within the organizations towards the capability to do network planning based on available information throughout the network. We provide a framework for planning systems, constituting a rich landscape of possible configurations, where the centralized and fully decentralized approaches are two extremes. We define and discuss agent based systems and in particular multi agent systems (MAS). We emphasize the issue of the role of MAS coordination architectures, and then explain that transportation is, next to production, an important domain in which MAS can and actually are applied. However, implementation is not widespread and some implementation issues are explored. In this manner, we conclude that planning problems in transportation have characteristics that comply with the specific capabilities of agent systems. In particular, these systems are capable to deal with inter-organizational and event-driven planning settings, hence meeting today’s requirements in supply chain planning and execution.supply chain;MAS;multi agent systems

New Shop Floor Control Approaches for Virtual Enterprises

The virtual enterprise paradigm seems a fit response to face market instability and the volatile nature of business opportunities increasing enterprise’s interest in similar forms of networked organisations. The dynamic environment of a virtual enterprise requires that partners in the consortium own reconfigurable shop floors. This paper presents new approaches to shop floor control that meet the requirements of the new industrial paradigms and argues on work re-organization at shop floor level.virtual enterprise; networked organisations

The essential benefits of an enterprise blockchain in business model innovation

Teknologi blockchain mendatangkan perubahan dan disrupsi atas model bisnis yang sudah ada sehinga patut untuk dianalisis lebih lanjut. Atas dasar itu, penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menjelaskan fenomena teknologi blockchain pada inovasi bisnis model pada ekosistem perusahaan. Secara empiris, teknologi blockchain terbukti meningkatkan kinerja organisasi. Studi ini menggunakan konsep value system untuk menjelaskan fenomena tersebut. Melalui penalaran abductive, studi ini menggunakan multiple-case study untuk menjawab persoalan penelitian. Secara garis besar, hasil studi ini menemukan bahwa teknologi blockchain mendatangkan manfaat kepada organisasi denga cara: (i) value capture melalui peningkatan profitabilitas, (ii) value creation melalui private parnership, (iii) value delivery melalui smart-contract, dan (iv) value proposition yang mendorong nilai yang berbasis pada peningkatan nilai bisnis organisasi melalui perbaikan operasional. Selain itu, studi ini juga mengusulkan tipe ekosistem blockchain yang berbeda pada organisasi: privat dan konsorsium. Ekosistem privat berorientasi pada perbaikan internal kinerja organisasi dalam satu entitas bisnis. Sebaliknya, ekosistem konsorsium berorientasi pada kolaborasi bisnis.Blockchain brings changes and disruptions to the existing business models and therefore deserves further analysis. Accordingly, this study aims to explain the phenomenon of blockchain technology in the business model innovation in the enterprise ecosystem. Empirically, numerous studies have shown that blockchain technology improves organizational performance. This study uses a value system framework to explain the enterprise blockchain phenomenon. Through abductive reasoning, this study uses a multiple-case study to answer the research questions. In sum, this study finds that blockchain technology delivers benefits to organizations in: (i) value capture through increased profitability; (ii) value creation through private partnership; (iii) value delivery through smart contracts; and (iv) value proposition that encourages improving the existing value proposition through operational improvements. Besides, the study also proposes the different types of enterprise blockchain ecosystems: private and consortium. The private ecosystem focuses on improving organizational performance through competition. In contrast, the consortium ecosystem focuses on  business value collaboration

Grid-enabled Workflows for Industrial Product Design

This paper presents a generic approach for developing and using Grid-based workflow technology for enabling cross-organizational engineering applications. Using industrial product design examples from the automotive and aerospace industries we highlight the main requirements and challenges addressed by our approach and describe how it can be used for enabling interoperability between heterogeneous workflow engines

Factors driving enterprise adoption of blockchain technology

Amidst the rapidly evolving advancement of blockchain technology (BT), enterprises face notable challenges in leveraging its transformative potential, starting with a need to understand the technology and how it can be used for particular applications. Two challenges are that many BT trials have not been successful and large-scale implementations that have led to continued use are scarce. This research provides a comprehensive examination of factors that drive the successful adoption of BT for enterprise use cases. A dual-phased approach was employed. First, I introduce a taxonomy matrix correlating BT design characteristics with use case characteristics, offering a framework for BT design and benefits across different enterprise contexts. Second, I conducted case studies of five successful BT cases in large enterprises that led to the adoption in terms of continued use and contrasted them with one failure case. The data collection and analysis of the case studies encompassed technological, organizational, environmental, and inter-organizational variables that led to BT\u27s continued use. The cross-case analysis revealed that compatibility, relative advantage, and observability are primary technological factors contributing to continued use. Within the organizational dimension, organizational knowledge and internal characteristics emerged as crucial elements, while regulatory compliance came out to be a significant factor. Based on the cross-case analysis, I develop theoretical propositions about the factors that lead to the continued use of BT, which can be further validated and tested in future research

Elastic Business Process Management: State of the Art and Open Challenges for BPM in the Cloud

With the advent of cloud computing, organizations are nowadays able to react rapidly to changing demands for computational resources. Not only individual applications can be hosted on virtual cloud infrastructures, but also complete business processes. This allows the realization of so-called elastic processes, i.e., processes which are carried out using elastic cloud resources. Despite the manifold benefits of elastic processes, there is still a lack of solutions supporting them. In this paper, we identify the state of the art of elastic Business Process Management with a focus on infrastructural challenges. We conceptualize an architecture for an elastic Business Process Management System and discuss existing work on scheduling, resource allocation, monitoring, decentralized coordination, and state management for elastic processes. Furthermore, we present two representative elastic Business Process Management Systems which are intended to counter these challenges. Based on our findings, we identify open issues and outline possible research directions for the realization of elastic processes and elastic Business Process Management.Comment: Please cite as: S. Schulte, C. Janiesch, S. Venugopal, I. Weber, and P. Hoenisch (2015). Elastic Business Process Management: State of the Art and Open Challenges for BPM in the Cloud. Future Generation Computer Systems, Volume NN, Number N, NN-NN., http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.future.2014.09.00