E-business in the Quebec forest products industry : perceptions, current uses and intentions to adopt

This paper proposes an analysis of e-business, its perceptions, current uses, and the intentions of companies to adopt these practices in the Quebec forest products industry. We use the results of an exploratory survey of this industry carried out during spring 2002. In accordance with other surveys, it is shown that despite its location in a country where information technology (IT) adoption level is generally high, the Quebec forest products industry still lags behind other sectors. The e-business uses of the surveyed companies in the Quebec forest products industry value chain are explored by category; year of establishment, number of employees and annual revenue. Actors surveyed include sawmills, other value added building material manufacturers, furniture factories, and pulp and paper mills. Perceptions, currents uses, and intentions of adoption are described with a comparison to the same industry in North America. In particular, this paper demonstrates that this industry somewhat lacks a strategic vision concerning the exploitation of IT tools. Finally, this paper proposes a critical review of the limitations of our study and develops future research directions

Multi-behavior agent model for supply chain management

Recent economic and international threats to occidental industries have encouraged companies to rethink their planning systems. Due to consolidation, the development of integrated supply chains and the use of inter-organizational information systems have increased business interdependencies and the need for collaboration. Thus, agility and the ability to deal quickly with disturbances in supply chains are critical to maintain overall performance. In order to develop tools to increase the agility of the supply chain and to promote the collaborative management of such disturbances, agent-based technology takes advantage of the ability of agents to make autonomous decisions in a distributed network. This paper proposes a multi-behavior agent model using different decision making approaches in a context where planning decisions are supported by a distributed advanced planning system (d-APS). The implementation of this solution is realized through the FOR@C experimental agent-based platform, dedicated to the supply chain planning for the forest products industry

Multi-Behavior Agent Model for Supply Chain Management

Recent economic and international threats to occidental industries have encouraged companies to rethink their planning systems. Due to consolidation, the development of integrated supply chains and the use of inter-organizational information systems have increased business interdependencies and the need for collaboration. Thus, agility and the ability to deal quickly with disturbances in supply chains are critical to maintain overall performance. In order to develop tools to increase the agility of the supply chain and to promote the collaborative management of such disturbances, agent-based technology takes advantage of the ability of agents to make autonomous decisions in a distributed network. This paper proposes a multi-behavior agent model using different decision making approaches in a context where planning decisions are supported by a distributed advanced planning system (d-APS). The implementation of this solution is realized through the FOR@C experimental agent-based platform, dedicated to the supply chain planning for the forest products industry

Innovation and value creation in university-industry research centres in the canadian forest products industry

As the forest products industry evolves into a modern industry based on cutting-edge industrial and management research, the prevalence and importance of university research centres have gained importance. Although there has been increased funding and attention given to university-industry research centres from policy makers and researchers, little is still known about the benefits or value that these collaborations provide and create for firms. Applied academic research requires the active participation of researchers and practitioners. In the Canadian forest products industry, there are other important actors that need to be considered, the federal and provincial governments as owners and regulators of the resource and funders of research and development projects and intermediary organisations who are often charged with transforming academic results into tools and methods able to be implemented into industry firms. This paper presents the results of three comparative case studies of university-industry research centres operating in the Canadian forest products industry through an exploration of their knowledge and technology transfer processes. The goal is to better understand the value that has been created for the four main groups of actors involved though informal and formal transfer processes and which processes are best suited for different types of knowledge

Measuring value in the innovation processes of university-industry research centres

There is increasing interest in new research relationships in the form of university-industry partnerships, by governments, universities, intermediary organisations and industry. These collaborations create value, however the value perceived, created and captured by the different actors in the innovation value network are different. However, based on the literature we can say that these values have to be present for all actors, at each phase, for the innovation process to continue. This paper presents a framework that illustrates a multi- actor view of the innovation process and associated values. It is hoped that this matrix can lead to new insight for researchers, practitioners and policy makers to manage better the innovation value network by facilitating the five phases of the innovation value network: policy making and grant process, idea generation and basic research, knowledge and technology development, knowledge and technology transfer and application of knowledge and technologies created by these research centres. Copyright © 2010 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd

A methodological framework for the analysis of agent-based supply chain planning simulations

Agent-based simulation is considered a promising approach for supply chain (SC) planning, configuration and design. Although there have been many important advances on how to specify, design, and implement agent-based simulation, the concerned literature does not properly addresses the analysis phase. In this early phase, SC stakeholders decide what kind of simulation experiments should be performed and their requirements, which considerably influence the whole development process and the resulting simulation environment. This work proposes an agent-based simulation framework for modeling SC systems in the analysis phase. In addition, it proposes a formal method for converting the analysis model into specification and design models. The proposed framework is being validated by means of an agent-based simulation platform developed in the context of the lumber industry.

Supply chain coordination using an adaptive distributed search strategy

A tree search strategy is said to be adaptive when it dynamically identifies which areas of the tree are likely to contain good solutions, using information that is gathered during the search process. This study shows how an adaptive approach can be used to enhance the efficiency of the coordination process of an industrial supply chain. The result is a new adaptive method (called the adaptive discrepancy search), intended for search in nonbinary trees, and that is exploitable in a distributed optimization context. For the industrial case studied (a supply chain in the forest products industry), this allowed reducing nearly half the time needed to obtain the best solution in comparison with a standard nonadaptive method. The method has also been evaluated for use with synthesized problems in order to validate the results that are obtained and to illustrate different properties of the algorith

An approach to model and manage cost-risk trade-off in Networked Manufacturing

Le présent article introduit une évaluation du risque dans la planification des systèmes manufacturiers, impliquant différents acteurs travaillant séquentiellement pour réaliser un produit. Nous considérons ici un environnement dynamique virtuel, où différentes firmes soumissionnent pour des taches précises. L’approche traditionnelle est d’assigner des firmes à des taches pour minimiser les coûts d’utilisation de la chaîne. Cette approche néglige ainsi la notion de fiabilité et de risque. L’objectif de cet article est de proposer une façon d’incorporer la notion de risque au processus de planification de la chaîne. Nous avons identifié le risque comme une combinaison de trois principaux intrants, et nous l’évaluons grâce à une approche dérivée de la logique floue. Nous décrivons comment fonctionne notre programme, et comment le risque évalué est utilisé pour établir quelles firmes choisir afin d’optimiser le compromis coût-risque.This paper introduces elements of risk into supply-chain manufacturing systems that involve various actors acting sequentially to achieve an end-result. We consider a virtual dynamic environment, where different firms bid on sequential tasks. The traditional approach has been to assign tasks to firms, in order to realize production as cost-effective chains of activities. This approach neglects elements of risk, which we show how to incorporate. We have identified risk as a combination of three inputs, using a fuzzy logic approach. We show how a fuzzy controller can measure the risk involved in a supply-chain, which is constructed on an order-contract basis. We use this measure of risk to build a decision support environment that helps isolate alternative supply-chains that are potentially interesting from a cost perspective and compares them from a risk minimization stand point.

An agent-based strategy for deploying analysis models into specification and design for distributed APS systems

Despite the extensive use of the agent technology in the Supply Chain Management field, its integration with Advanced Planning and Scheduling (APS) tools still represents a promising field with several open research questions. Specifically, the literature falls short in providing an integrated framework to analyze, specify, design and implement simulation experiments covering the whole simulation cycle. Thus, this paper proposes an agent-based strategy to convert the 'analysis' models into 'specification' and 'design' models combining two existing methodologies proposed in the literature. The first one is a recent and unique approach dedicated to the 'analysis' of agent-based APS systems. The second one is a well-established methodological framework to 'specify' and 'design' agent-based supply chain systems. The proposed conversion strategy is original and is the first one allowing simulation analysts to integrate the whole simulation development process in the domain of distributed APS