Multi-Agent System Interaction in Integrated SCM\ud

Coordination between organizations on strategic, tactical and operation levels leads to more effective and efficient supply chains. Supply chain management is increasing day by day in modern enterprises.. The environment is becoming competitive and many enterprises will find it difficult to survive if they do not make their sourcing, production and distribution more efficient. Multi-agent supply chain management has recognized as an effective methodology for supply chain management. Multi-agent systems (MAS) offer new methods compared to conventional, centrally organized architectures in the scope of supply chain management (SCM). Since necessary data are not available within the whole supply chain, an integrated approach for production planning and control taking into account all the partners involved is not feasible. In this study we show how MAS architecture interacts in the integrated SCM architecture with the help of various intelligent agents to highlight the above problem

Women's Role in the Agricultural Household: Bargaining and Human Capital

This paper reviews the methods and empirical findings from economic analyses of women's contribution to social welfare and the determinants of their human capital. To understand better women's roles in agricultural households, three themes have gained prominence in the economics literature. First is the conceptualization of the unified family as coordinator of production and consumption over the lifecycle. Second is the role of separability of production and consumption decisions in the agricultural household that depends on the equivalence of hired and of family labor and the existence of competitive factor markets. Third, is the exploration of individualistic Nash-bargaining or Pareto efficient collective coordination within the family that preserves the distinct preferences of individuals to be expressed in behavioral variation across families. The changing bargaining power of men and women is traced primarily to the increasing investment in women's human capital, in the forms of nutrition, health, schooling, mobility and family planning. This reduction in the gender gap in human capital is shown to be closely related to declines in mortality, fertility, and population growth in most studied populations and may importantly affect the intrahousehold distribution of resources.

Primjena ERP sustava za poboljšanje koordinacije internog dobavljačkog lanca

In today\u27s competitive global market, one of the most effective ways towards achieving competitive advantage has been the ability to accelerate the supply chain process through ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) systems. ERP enables a more efficient internal and external supply chain. Enterprise resource planning system is an information system that manages all aspects of a business (production planning, sales, distribution, accounting, purchasing and customer services). Planning system is the core of an ERP system. The aim of this paper is to propose a hierarchical planning and scheduling model based on just-in-time principle to improve internal supply chain coordination for one-piece and small batch production. The model is implemented into the system ERPINS (Enterprise Resource Planning ININ Solutions) that is developed for metal processing industry, wood and food processing industry and construction industry.Na današnjem konkurentnom globalnom tržištu jedan od najučinkovitijih načina postizanja konkurentne prednosti je sposobnost ubrzanja procesa dobavljačkog lanca pomoću ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) sustava koji omogućava učinkovitiji interni i eksterni dobavljački lanac. Enterprise resource planning sustav je informacijski sustav koji upravlja svim aspektima poslovanja (planiranje proizvodnje, prodaja, distribucija, računovodstvo, nabava i korisničke usluge). Sustav planiranja je glavni dio ERP sustava. Cilj ovog rada je dati model višerazinskog planiranja i terminiranja koji je zasnovan na just-in-time principu sa svrhom poboljšane koordinacije internog dobavljačkog lanca za pojedinačnu i maloserijsku proizvodnju. Model je primijenjen u sustavu ERPINS (Enterprise Resource Planning ININ Solutions) razvijenom za metaloprerađivačku, drvnu, prehrambenu i građevinsku industriju

Genetic Algorithms in Supply Chain Scheduling of Ready-Mixed Concrete

The coordination of just-in-time production and transportation in a network of partially independent facilities to guarantee timely delivery to distributed customers is one of the most challenging aspects of supply chain management. From the theoretical perspective, the timely production/distribution can be viewed as a hybrid combination of planning, scheduling and routing problem, each notoriously affected by nearly prohibitive combinatorial complexity. From a practical viewpoint, the problem calls for a trade-off between risks and profits. This paper focuses on the ready-made concrete delivery: in addition to the mentioned complexity, strict time-constraints forbid both earliness and lateness of the supply. After developing a detailed model of the considered problem, we propose a novel meta-heuristic approach based on a hybrid genetic algorithm combined with constructive heuristics. A detailed case study derived from industrial data is used to illustrate the potential of the proposed approach

Multi-Risk Climate Mapping for the Adaptation of the Venice Metropolitan Area

Climate change risk reduction requires cities to undertake urgent decisions. One of the principal obstacles that hinders effective decision making is insufficient spatial knowledge frameworks. Cities climate adaptation planning must become strategic to rethink and transform urban fabrics holistically. Contemporary urban planning should merge future threats with older and unsolved criticalities, like social inequities, urban conflicts and \u201cdrosscapes\u201d. Retrofitting planning processes and redefining urban objectives requires the development of innovative spatial information frameworks. This paper proposes a combination of approaches to overcome knowledge production limits and to support climate adaptation planning. The research was undertaken in collaboration with the Metropolitan City of Venice and the Municipality of Venice, and required the production of a multi-risk climate atlas to support their future spatial planning efforts. The developed tool is a Spatial Decision Support System (SDSS), which aids adaptation actions and the coordination of strategies. The model recognises and assesses two climate impacts: Urban Heat Island and Flooding, representing the Metropolitan City of Venice (CMVE) as a case study in complexity. The model is composed from multiple assessment methodologies and maps both vulnerability and risk. The atlas links the morphological and functional conditions of urban fabrics and land use that triggers climate impacts. The atlas takes the exposure assessment of urban assets into account, using this parameter to describe local economies and social services, and map the uneven distribution of impacts. The resulting tool is therefore a replicable and scalable mapping assessment able to mediate between metropolitan and local level planning systems

Coordination of production scheduling and vehicle routing problem with release and due date

This work is concerned with solving the vehicle routing problem (VRP) which takes into account the customer’s release and due date. The problem studied can also be categorized as a non-classical VRP as the departure times of vehicles depend on the dates of orders released from the production line and become available for the distribution process. The problem is investigated through two stages. In the first stage, vehicle routing problem with release and due date (VRPRDD) is treated. At the beginning of the planning, it is assumed that the dates where the customer orders become available are known. A mathematical formulation is developed to represent the problem which solved by several heuristics, i.e. Variable Neighborhood Search (VNS), Large Neighborhood Search (LNS) and Tabu Search (TS). The algorithms are written in C++ and run on a PC computer with an Intel PentiumCore by using 56’s Solomon instances with some modification. Different kinds of vehicle routing problem have been tackled in order to see the performance of proposed heuristics. The results are then compared in order to find the best method which yields the least routing cost solution. From the outcome obtained, VNS is proved to be the best algorithm which generates the least cost solution to our problem. Further investigation has been carried out in stage two which considers the extension of VRPRDD. The coordination of production sequence and vehicle routing (PS-VRPRDD) is the main subject to our problem studied in which the best production sequence will leads to the least routing. Classical decomposition approach, namely Alternateis used which decompose the problems into two sub-problems, i.e. production sequence and vehicle routing. The results proved that effective coordination shows the large potential savings that attract the interest of industrial distributors in optimizing their distribution process in practice

Multi Site Coordination using a Multi-Agent System

A new approach of coordination of decisions in a multi site system is proposed. It is based this approach on a multi-agent concept and on the principle of distributed network of enterprises. For this purpose, each enterprise is defined as autonomous and performs simultaneously at the local and global levels. The basic component of our approach is a so-called Virtual Enterprise Node (VEN), where the enterprise network is represented as a set of tiers (like in a product breakdown structure). Within the network, each partner constitutes a VEN, which is in contact with several customers and suppliers. Exchanges between the VENs ensure the autonomy of decision, and guarantiee the consistency of information and material flows. Only two complementary VEN agents are necessary: one for external interactions, the Negotiator Agent (NA) and one for the planning of internal decisions, the Planner Agent (PA). If supply problems occur in the network, two other agents are defined: the Tier Negotiator Agent (TNA) working at the tier level only and the Supply Chain Mediator Agent (SCMA) working at the level of the enterprise network. These two agents are only active when the perturbation occurs. Otherwise, the VENs process the flow of information alone. With this new approach, managing enterprise network becomes much more transparent and looks like managing a simple enterprise in the network. The use of a Multi-Agent System (MAS) allows physical distribution of the decisional system, and procures a heterarchical organization structure with a decentralized control that guaranties the autonomy of each entity and the flexibility of the network

Modeling an integrated supply chain management system for an appliance company: A value of information approach.

The present research is focused on the broad concept of Supply Chain Management , a philosophy that has to do with the coordination and integration of complex interactions in the production-distribution chain of a business operation. This includes the flow of material and information from raw material suppliers to end-customers. This thesis focuses on analyzing the Supply Chain from an inventory management point-of-view. Specifically, we propose a multi-stage, multi-period, multi-product, combinatorial inventory-planning model with stochastic demand. The mixed-integer programming model integrates the production and distribution planning processes of a large household appliance manufacturer located in Mexico. The proposed model determines the assignment of the finished goods production level (units), workforce level (labor hours), transportation mode, number of transportation consignments, and inventory levels (in units) as well as the allocation of information resources in order to minimize the total costs incurred in the system. Sensitivity analysis is carried out to test the robustness of the model. All in all the major contribution of this research is the inclusion of the information resources allocation concept, which measures the trade-offs between the value of the information and the overall system costs.* *This dissertation is a compound document (contains both a paper copy and a CD as part of the dissertation). The CD requires the following system requirements: Adobe Acrobat. Paper copy at Leddy Library: Theses & Major Papers - Basement, West Bldg. / Call Number: Thesis2002 .D665. Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 42-03, page: 1048. Adviser: R. S. Lashkari. Thesis (M.A.Sc.)--University of Windsor (Canada), 2002

Integrated game-theory modelling for multi enterprise-wide coordination and collaboration under uncertain competitive environment

In this work, an integrated Game Theory (GT) approach is developed for the coordination of multi-enterprise Supply Chains (SCs) in a competitive uncertain environment. The conflicting goals of the different participants are solved through coordination contracts using a non-cooperative non-zero-sum Stackelberg game under the leadership of the manufacturer. The Stackelberg payoff matrix is built under the nominal conditions, and then evaluated under different probable uncertain scenarios using a Monte-Carlo simulation. The competition between the Stackelberg game players and the third parties is solved through a Nash Equilibrium game. A novel way to analyze the game outcome is proposed based on a win–win Stackelberg set of “Pareto-frontiers”. The benefits of the resulting MINLP tactical models are illustrated by a case study with different vendors around a client SC. The results show that the coordinated decisions lead to higher expected payoffs compared to the standalone case, while also leading to uncertainty reduction.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft