Insights on Multi-Agent Systems Applications for Supply Chain Management

In this paper, we review relevant literature on the development of multi-agent systems applications for supply chain management. We give a general picture of the state of the art, showing the main applications developed using this novel methodology for analyzing diverse problems in industry. We also analyze generic frameworks for supply chain modelling, showing their main characteristics. We discuss the main topics addressed with this technique and the degree of development of the contributions.Universidad de Sevilla V PPIT-USPiano della Ricerca Dipartimentale 2016-2018 of DICAR-UniC

Toward a Resilient Holistic Supply Chain Network System: Concept, Review and Future Direction

The recent financial crisis and other major crises have suggested that there are some strong interactions and interdependence between several supply chains and their external environments in various ways. A set of supply chains that are interdependent is called a holistic supply chain network (H-SCN) in this paper. There is a need to focus on building the resilience (in short, the ability of a system to recover from damage or disruption) of an entire H-SCN as it is believed that such a network system is strongly relevant to the recent economic recession that is triggered by financial crises. The objectives of this paper are to provide a classification of different SCNs in literature, leading to the identification of a new type of SCN system, i.e., an H-SCN, and to discuss the state of knowledge on the resilience of SCNs, particularly of an H-SCN. A systematic review approach is applied in this paper. Another contribution of this paper is the provision of a more comprehensive definition and description of resilient systems, including SCN systems. A final contribution of this paper is the proposal of the future directions of research on resilient SCN systems, particularly resilient H-SCN systems.postprin

Integrated methodological frameworks for modelling agent-based advanced supply chain planning systems: a systematic literature review

Purpose: The objective of this paper is to provide a systematic literature review of recent developments in methodological frameworks for the modelling and simulation of agent-based advanced supply chain planning systems. Design/methodology/approach: A systematic literature review is provided to identify, select and make an analysis and a critical summary of all suitable studies in the area. It is organized into two blocks: the first one covers agent-based supply chain planning systems in general terms, while the second one specializes the previous search to identify those works explicitly containing methodological aspects. Findings: Among sixty suitable manuscripts identified in the primary literature search, only seven explicitly considered the methodological aspects. In addition, we noted that, in general, the notion of advanced supply chain planning is not considered unambiguously, that the social and individual aspects of the agent society are not taken into account in a clear manner in several studies and that a significant part of the works are of a theoretical nature, with few real-scale industrial applications. An integrated framework covering all phases of the modelling and simulation process is still lacking in the literature visited. Research limitations/implications: The main research limitations are related to the period covered (last four years), the selected scientific databases, the selected language (i.e. English) and the use of only one assessment framework for the descriptive evaluation part. Practical implications: The identification of recent works in the domain and discussion concerning their limitations can help pave the way for new and innovative researches towards a complete methodological framework for agent-based advanced supply chain planning systems. Originality/value: As there are no recent state-of-the-art reviews in the domain of methodological frameworks for agent-based supply chain planning, this paper contributes to systematizing and consolidating what has been done in recent years and uncovers interesting research gaps for future studies in this emerging fieldPeer Reviewe

Towards resilient supply chain networks

In the past decade, events like 9/11 terror attacks, the recent financial crisis and other major crisis has proved that there is strong interaction and interdependency of a supply chain network with its external environments in various channels and thus a need to focus on building resiliency (in short, the ability of the system to recover from damage or disruption) of the entire network system. Although literature has discussed some way of improving resiliency of an individual firm which is a member of the network system, it lacked to capture a holistic view of the supply chain network. Pertaining to this observation, this work proposes to improve resiliency of a supply chain network from a system’s perspective rather concentrate on an individual firm. For this purpose, this thesis proposes a conceptual framework to promote early identification and timely information of the disruptions arising in a supply chain network and timely sharing of this information among all the members of the network. The key principle emphasized in this thesis is that recovery from an inevitable disruption has a better possibility if a member of the supply chain network has an early indication or knowledge of the upcoming disruption. A discrete event dynamic system simulation tool called Petri nets is utilized to realize the proposed conceptual framework. Furthermore, the practical benefits and implications of the proposed model and tool are demonstrated with help of two case studies. This thesis has several contributions to the field of operation management and supply chain. First, a new paradigm for supply chain management to avoid large scale failures such as financial crisis is available to the field, which may be applied by governments or regulatory bodies. Second, a new framework which allows for a quantitative analysis of failures of an entire supply chain network is available to the field, which is easy to be used. Third, a novel application of Petri nets to this new problem in supply chain management is available

Supply chain complexity and robustness analysis

Imperial Users onl

The impact of supply chain structures on performance.

La Tesis analiza el impacto que tiene la estructura de las redes de suministro sobre su rendimiento, concretamente sobre el “efecto látigo” o efecto bullwhip. Para ello se desarrolla una arquitectura basada en la metodología de los sistemas multi-agente, que permite el modelado de sistemas complejos. Dicha arquitectura es implementada en un software dando lugar a un simulador de redes de suministro llamado SCOPE, que permite el modelado y simulación de una amplia variedad de configuraciones de redes de suministro. SCOPE es utilizado para investigar una de las suposiciones más comunes en el campo del modelado de redes de suministro: el uso de estructuras muy sencillas en forma serial generalmente con muy pocas fases funcionales y pocos nodos. Para determinar el impacto de la estructura de la red sobre el efecto bullwhip se utiliza una estructura más compleja y más acorde con las estructuras de redes de suministro reales: la red divergente. Se realizan tres experimentos: (i) análisis comparativo del efecto bullwhip entre la red divergente y la serial; (ii) análisis comparativo de la eficacia de dos técnicas muy conocidas para la limitación del efecto bullwhip entre la red divergente y la serial; (iii) determinación de los parámetros estructurales de la red de suministro divergente y análisis estadístico para determinar si dichos parámetros estructurales impactan sobre el efecto bullwhip. Los resultados obtenidos revelan que todos los parámetros estructurales analizados impactan significativamente sobre efecto bullwhip. Además, en caso de un impulso inesperado en la demanda, el impacto de la red de suministro en el efecto bullwhip es mayor. Las técnicas para limitación del efecto bullwhip son también efectivas en redes de suministro divergentes, consiguiendo además un aumento de su robustez ante cambios bruscos inesperados en la demanda

Supply chain management of the Canadian Forest Products industry under supply and demand uncertainties: a simulation-based optimization approach

The Canadian forest products industry has failed to retain its competitiveness in the global markets under stochastic supply and demand conditions. Supply chain management models that integrate the two-way flow of information and materials under stochastic supply and demand can ensure capacity-feasible production of forest industry and achieve desired customer satisfaction levels. This thesis aims to develop a real-time decision support system, using simulation-based optimization approach, for the Canadian forest products industry under uncertain market supply and demand conditions. First, a simulation-based optimization model is developed for a single product (sawlogs), single industry (sawmill) under demand uncertainty that minimizes supply chain costs and finds optimum inventory policy parameters (s, S) for all agents. The model is then extended to multi-product, multi-industry forest products supply chain under supply and demand uncertainty, using a pulp mill as the nodal agent. Integrating operational planning decisions (inventory management, order and supply quantities) throughout the supply chain, the overall cost of the supply chain is minimized. Finally, the model integrates production planning of the pulp mill with inventory management throughout the supply chain, and maximizes net annual profit of the pulp mill. It was found that incorporation of a merchandizing yard between suppliers and forest mills provides a feasible solution to handle supply and demand uncertainty. Although the merchandizing yard increases the total daily cost of the supply chain by $11,802 in the single industry model, there is a net annual cost saving of$17.4 million in the multi-product, multi-industry supply chain. Under supply and demand uncertainty without a merchandizing yard, the pulp mill is only able to operate at 10% of its full capacity and achieve a customer satisfaction level of 9%. The merchandizing yard ensures pulp mill running capacity of 70%, and customer satisfaction level of at least 50%. However, the merchandizing yard is economically viable only, if the sales price of pulp is at least $680 per tonne. Efficient and effective management of inventory throughout the supply chain, integrated with production planning not only ensures continuous operation of forest mills, but also significantly improves the customer satisfaction