Fuzzy Electronic Supply Chain System

A supply chain is a network of suppliers, factories, warehouses, distribution centers and retailers, through which raw materials are acquired, transformed, produced and delivered to the customer. An effective and efficient way of managing this network is called a supply chain management system. The authors’ purpose here is to design a capable electronic supply chain system in an electronic market. The authors consider a supply chain composed of supplier, plant, and customer. The aim is to optimize a real time web-based fuzzy order-delivery system for which customer satisfaction is emphasized. As such, a comprehensive web-based order-delivery system in an electronic market is proposed and optimized applying fuzzy mathematical programming.

Agent-Based Dynamic Route Selection for Multilayer Electronic Supply Network

The authors develop an intelligent information system in a multilayer electronic supply network. Using the internet for supply chain management (SCM) is a key interest for contemporary managers and researchers. It has been realized that the internet can facilitate SCM by making real time information available and enabling collaboration between trading partners. Here, the authors propose a multi-agent system to analyze the performance of the elements of a supply network based on the attributes of the information flow. Each layer consists of elements which are differentiated by their performance throughout the supply network. The proposed agents measure and record the performance flow of elements considering their web interactions for a dynamic route selection. A dynamic programming approach is applied to determine the optimal route for a customer in the end-user layer.

Supply Chain Coordination under Price Competition

This chapter analyzes the coordination and competition issues in a two-stage supply-chain in which a vendor distributes a product to two different retailers who compete on their retail prices in the same market. The demand faced by each retailer not only depends on its own price, but also on the price set by the other retailer. Mathematical models have been developed to analyze the coordination mechanism. It is shown here that perfect channel coordination can be achieved by employing simultaneously quantity discounts, volume discounts and franchise fees. Further, it has been shown that under non-cooperative price competition, the steady state equilibrium is dynamically stable in nature under certain conditions. The model is illustrated with suitable numerical examples.

A Multi Agent/HLA Platform for Enterprises Interoperability

This chapter aims at proposing an implementation of the federation interoperability concept for information exchange between networked enterprises. This implementation makes use of Multi Agent / HLA paradigm and the emerging concept of Short-Lived Ontology. The authors give first, a review of ongoing researches on Enterprise Interoperability. Then, they recall on Artificial Agent Concept and HLA Standard that appear to be adequate to support simulation and execution of the studied concept. Indeed, on the one hand Agent dialogue fits the concept of information exchange in a federated enterprise interoperability approach, on the other hand the HLA standard, initially designed for military M&S purpose, can be transposed for enterprise interoperability at the implementation level, reusing the years of experiences in distributed systems. From these postulates, we propose the first Agent/HLA Short-Lived Ontology based framework to implement distributed enterprise models from the conceptual level of federated enterprise interoperability approach.

E-Supply Network

Finding most promising suppliers based on consistency with the overall goals of buyers’ companies is of great importance where different small buyers are dependent on large suppliers. Here, the authors attempt to model and implement an e-supply network considering the buyer-buyer-supplier triadic. This approach facilitates horizontal information exchange among buyers in sharing their experience and thereby buyers are inclined to find the most acceptable suppliers. Indeed, vertical information sharing among buyers and suppliers are considered in order to allocate the benefits of the mechanism to all partners while optimizing the network global objective function. The concept of discrepancy is first utilized to search for the most promising suppliers in the network based on the overall goals (exclusive attributes) of buyers and suppliers. Then, products’ specific attributes (bilateral attributes) are used to sharpen the results. At the last step, a genetic algorithm is used by the network agent to coordinate the network. Ultimately, the authors utilize intelligent agents to simulate buyers’ and suppliers’ behaviors with the aim of evaluating the system. They find out that information sharing in supply networks can be effectively established if the barriers of information access and information effects are wisely defined. While the methodology of using information for coordination is still important, the definition of information structure, the way we acquire and maintain the information and the governing rules have critical roles in the success of the system. The agent technology has a key role here enabling the users to utilize the information effects while not having access to them directly.

Reverse Logistics Network Design Using a Hybrid Genetic Algorithm and Simulated Annealing Methodology

Reverse logistics network design (RLND) effectiveness has an important impact on the effectiveness of the whole supply network coordination. Considering that, in this study, the RLND problem is investigated and a hybrid genetic algorithms and simulated annealing (HGASA) methodology is proposed. This problem is applied to a preceding study which utilized genetic algorithms (GA) for the optimization. HGASA and GA results are tested with Wilcoxon rank-sum test for hundred runs and the results prove the difference between two approaches. Additionally, the averages and the standard deviations support that, the HGASA algorithm increases the probability of obtaining better solutions.

Multi-Echelon Supply Chain Modeling With Dynamic Continuous Review Inventory Policy

In this chapter, an integrated procurement, production and distribution supply chain model is developed in fuzzy environment and performance vector of the supply chain is determined by solving strategic model and tactical model iteratively. Mixed integer programming model is formulated through fuzzy goal programming approach in strategic level. In the tactical level, dynamic continuous review inventory policy for controlling of raw material inventory at supplier echelon, finished products at plant echelon and distribution center echelons is assumed. The inventory models are solved by considering the interdependency of economic order quantity and reorder point. The supply chain model, which is developed in fuzzy environment, finds compromise solution with multiple, vague and in-compatible objectives. Fuzzy goal programming techniques provide feasible solutions with flexible model formulation in decision-making problems, which involve human judgments in decision-making. Need for supply chin modeling with dynamic continuous review policy in fuzzy environment and the existing literature are outlined in Introduction. Fuzzy supply chain modeling with dynamic continuous review policy for controlling of the raw materials, finished products at plant and distribution center echelons is described in Fuzzy supply chain modeling section. Flow chart of the methodology is explained in Solution Methodology section. The proposed model is illustrated through a numerical example. Supply chain cost, Volume flexibility and unit costs are determined and presented in Results and Discussion section. Importance of the methodology and future scope is made in Conclusion section. This model finds application in the industries involving continuous production like oil and natural gas, steel manufacturing industries etc

A Content Analysis for Evaluating RFID Applications in Supply Network Management

Traditionally, a supply network is a sequence of different and multiple numbers of processes interconnected each other in order to satisfy all capacities and demand requirements imposed by customers with minimum cost to the network. Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology could potentially improve supply network management by guarantying more visibility and real time communications across actors. Currently, RFID has playing an important role in coordinating information in several industrial contexts: in brief, its main advantage is to improve the quality and the speediness of information sharing among different partners in a network. Moreover, RFID capability could be effectively applied to replace traditional approaches (i.e. barcodes) to store and retrieve item data. On the other hand, RFID application is affected by some criticisms from both technological and economical point of view, as all emerging ICT technologies. In recent years, several studies have been developed in order to analyze benefits of RFID applications; few papers are focused on analyzing evaluation frameworks for RFID applications in complex supply networks. The proposed content analysis aims to support in evaluting potential operational benefits of RFID technology in different supply networks. The analysis proposed has been developed according to the well-know Supply Chain Operations Reference (SCOR) which allows integrating business process reengineering, benchmarking, and process measurement into a cross-functional framework. The content analysis has been developed according to current literature about RFID applications; finally, it is proposed a standardized guideline for evaluating potential benefit of RFID technology in supply networks.

e-Supply Network

The automation of negotiation among buyer-supplier-supplier triad is an important policy in e-supply network coordination (e-SNC). In addition to the buyer-supplier coordination advantages, a further coordination among suppliers is also highly important in order to maximize the network supply capacity utilization especially when the suppliers are geographically decentralized. This chapter focuses on the impact of suppliers’ coordination in a network where the coordination among buyers and suppliers is in place. The proposed agent-based model is composed of two negotiator agents, one monitor agent, and one coordinator agent. The model begins with buyer-supplier negotiation and coordination mechanism adopted from the approach developed by Mohebbi and Shafaei (2010). Then, the suppliers’ coordination mechanism is developed to investigate the interaction among suppliers and evaluate the subsequent benefit obtained in the global network. The efficiency of the proposed approach is evaluated using a simulation model. The results demonstrate that in a network where the coordination among buyers and suppliers is in place, a further coordination among suppliers leads to the reduction of total network cost.

Modeling and Simulation of Partnership Network for ?an Intelligent Supply Chain

Contrary to actual logistics networks in which chains are frozen, in the proposed partnership network, a dynamic chain is only built each time an order is requested; nothing is planned ahead of time. An isoarchic control model based on the holonic paradigm is proposed. The control of the partnership network can be seen through a simultaneous analysis of the holon views. The proposed control is based on a multicriteria analysis method by complete aggregation (Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP)). The assignment of orders is based on the search for the best response to a Call For Proposals submitted by a customer. The solution that appears to be the most efficient in terms of the evaluation criteria will be adopted. For validation purposes, a simulation of the proposed approach was implemented using a distributed simulation environment HLA (High Level Architecture). A set of realistic tests were used to evaluate the proposed approach.