Automated Supply Chain Formation – A Theoretical Framework

The purpose of this paper is to review the different concepts and approaches regarding automated supply chain formation (SCF) in order to create a theoretical framework and identify gaps in existing research in SCF regarding the complexity of practical implementation in the context of Industry 4.0. The research is conducted through analyzing three perspectives regard-ing the complexity of the SCF process: 1) the existence of a central authority, 2) the mecha-nisms employed for communication between entities in the supply chain, 3) one/multi-unit dimension for the traded goods. A theoretical framework was created and the following gaps and issues were identified in the existing research literature: 1) Parameters used in order to pair-wise suppliers/consumers are limited. 2) The resulted supply chains are assessed mainly using a profit optimization function for the end-consumer. 3) The possible risks associated with participating entities in the supply chain are not considered

Composing Supply Chains Through Multiunit Combinatorial Reverse Auctions With Transformability Relationships Among Goods

In this paper, we introduce a novel auction-based decision support system to help a firm readily assemble supply chains. At this aim, we tackle the problem of deciding whether to outsource some production processes or not-the so-called make-or-buy decision problem. The solution to the make-or-buy decision problem is an optimal supply chain whose operations are either performed in-house or outsourced. We propose to employ a novel extension of combinatorial reverse auctions, the so-called Multiunit Combinatorial Reverse Auction with Transformability Relationships Among Goods, which allows the following: 1) a buyer/auctioneer to express transformability relationships among goods (some goods can be transformed into others at some transformation cost) and 2) bidders to express their preferences over bundles of goods.This work was supported in part by research projects Instituciones Electronicas Autonomas (TIN2006-15662-C02-01), Agreement Technologies (CONSOLIDER CSD2007-0022), and Engineering Self-* Virtually Embedded Systems (TIN2009-14702-C02-01); by the Generalitat de Catalunya under Grant 2009-SGR-1434; and by the European Union-funded Synthetic Forager Project (ICT-217148-SF). The work of A. Giovannucci was supported by the Juan de la Cierva Program (JCI-2008-03006). The work of J. A. Rodriguez-Aguilar was supported by the Jose Castillejo Program (JC2008-00337) of the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation.Peer Reviewe