9 research outputs found
A Multi-agent Framework for Agile Outsourced Supply Chains
The primary goal of an agile supply chain is to meet the varying demand of customers. Therefore, the supply chain nowadays involves coordination among partners, and this has raised issues of effective networking and logistics. The present chapter proposes a reconfigurable multi-agent architecture framework that can assist in selecting outsourcing partners and develop effective coordination among the partners and between manufacturing units. The proposed multi-agent architecture is inspired by the human self-healing mechanism and is capable of managing disruptions that occur during manufacturing operations. When a new production order is introduced, or during the disruptions, this agent framework uses a string matching algorithm to generate a better plan. The proposed agent architecture also learns continuously from its past experiences. This framework will also help to manufacture better quality products at minimum cost and within the due date.Department of Industrial and Systems Engineerin
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Diffusion In The Face Of Failure: The Evolution Of A Management Innovation
Recent work has questioned the institutional model of management innovation by highlighting interactions between the field-level actors engaged in diffusing innovations and implementation of the innovation at organization level. Focusing on the adaptation of management innovations to their context, rather than their creation, we review this work and use it to analyse the global diffusion of resource planning (RP), counter posing this case with the widely studied example of total quality management. Both of these innovations experienced a high level of failure when implemented by organizations. Total quality management's diffusion was characterized by a ‘boom and bust’ cycle. RP, however, has continued to spread globally in the form of its variants: MRP, MRPII and ERP. Our analysis seeks to account for the long-run diffusion of RP through a processual model which highlights the interplay between RP's discursive framing at field level, the affordances of the innovation itself and its adaptation within organizations. This demonstrates how objectifying RP in software not only helped to spread the innovation but also allowed field-level actors to differentiate its development as a successful innovation from the many failures experienced by organizations attempting to adapt it