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

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

Reconfigurable web service integration in the extended logistics enterprise

Transportation and warehousing logistics are activities that require strong information systems and computer support. This requirement has grown with the advent of e-commerce. Companies such as FedEx and UPS now allow their customers to track and monitor the fulfilment of their requested services on the Internet. In order for such a system to be effective, the goods need to be handled by the one corporation, with an integrated system. This is rare in the case of Small to Medium sized Enterprise (SME). With the advent of Business to Business (B2B), and Partner to Partner (P2P) e-commerce, there has been an increasing tendency for SMEs to set up consortia that represent several players in a given field in order to contend with larger competitors. This paper deals with the concept of an extended logistics enterprise and explores the software engineering issues underlying the development of such complex systems

Commercial-off-the-shelf simulation package interoperability: Issues and futures

Commercial-Off-The-Shelf Simulation Packages (CSPs) are widely used in industry to simulate discrete-event models. Interoperability of CSPs requires the use of distributed simulation techniques. Literature presents us with many examples of achieving CSP interoperability using bespoke solutions. However, for the wider adoption of CSP-based distributed simulation it is essential that, first and foremost, a standard for CSP interoperability be created, and secondly, these standards are adhered to by the CSP vendors. This advanced tutorial is on an emerging standard relating to CSP interoperability. It gives an overview of this standard and presents case studies that implement some of the proposed standards. Furthermore, interoperability is discussed in relation to large and complex models developed using CSPs that require large amount of computing resources. It is hoped that this tutorial will inform the simulation community of the issues associated with CSP interoperability, the importance of these standards and its future

Specification of the PERFoRM architecture for the seamless production system reconfiguration

The world is assisting to the fourth industrial revolution, with several domains of science and technology being strongly developed and, specially, being integrated with each other, allowing to build evolvable complex systems. Data digitization, big-data analysis, distributed control, Industrial Internet of Things, Cyber-Physical Systems and self-organization, amongst others, are playing an important role in this journey. This paper considers the best practices from previous successful European projects addressing distributed control systems to develop an innovative architecture that can be industrially deployed. For this purpose, a particular design process has to be addressed in order to consider the requirements and functionalities from various use cases. To investigate the known practices, four use cases are enlighted in this paper, which cover a wide spectrum of the European industrial force, as well as industrial standards to support a smooth migration from traditional systems to the emergent distributed systems.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Standardization in cyber-physical systems: the ARUM case

Cyber-physical systems concept supports the realization of the Industrie 4.0 vision towards the computerization of traditional industries, aiming to achieve intelligent and reconfigurable factories. Standardization assumes a critical role in the industrial adoption of cyber-physical systems, namely in the integration of legacy systems as well as the smooth migration from existing running systems to the new ones. This paper analyses some existing standards in related fields and presents identified limitations and efforts for a wider acceptance of such systems by industry. A special attention is devoted to the efforts to develop a standard-compliant service-oriented multi-agent system solution within the ARUM project.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Enterprise System Design for RFID Enabled Supply Chains from Experience in Two National Projects

Two national demonstrator projects have been developed using global RFID standards to explore the suitability of this pervasive technology to the fast moving consumer goods supply chain. The projects show that RFID technology is still not reliable enough to produce advantages over traditional tracking technologies. This paper reviews the processes and gaps in these experiences, and assesses future research opportunities in this area. A system modelling approach is used to understand the relationships between different sub-systems in the enterprises of the supply chain and examine the enterprise processes that drive the activities in the national projects. Based on these analyses, an enterprise system model is proposed for designing future development of RFID based supply chains