Enhancing Cooperation in Enterprises using Agent and Web Services Paradigms

At the present time and with the economic orientation towards maturity, enterprises unlike the traditional competitive business strategies are wanted out of necessity to cooperate with other enterprises and to add new activities to their existing profiles. The rapid growth of technologies motivates enterprises to invest more and more in this domain with the adoption of the cooperative e-business applications. Consequently, we propose in this paper an approach that permits enterprises to enhance their cooperative activities. This approach is based on the agent and Web services paradigms. It is organized in the form of cooperative application groups representing the different parts of a company. Agent coordinators orchestrate the cooperative work of these groups. The most requested functionalities inside the enterprise and those offered to the external world can be exported as Web Services. We describe the Web Services with DAML-based Web Service ontology (OWL-S). The search, invocation and exploration of these Web services can be offered by an intermediate agent called Web Service Finder Agent. The proposed approach provides a new vision of the cooperation context where the companies and their partners share knowledge and offer functionalities as agents and Web Services.

Revenue Sharing in a Two-Stage Supply Chain with Linear Stepwise Unit Inventory Holding Cost

In this chapter we focus on examining the coordination mechanisms for a two-stage supply chain comprising one supplier and one retailer. We consider such a channel relationship that the transaction quantity between the two members is sensitive to the supplier’s inventory level and that the supplier’s unit inventory holding cost has a linear stepwise structure. We devise a coordinated revenue-sharing contract with bargaining so that each party’s respective profit is better than that resulted from the simple sequential optimization mechanism. The key contract parameters, namely the supplier’s inventory level and the retailer’s revenue-sharing fraction, are obtained and analyzed. Numerical illustrations of the contracts are given and shed lights on how the supply chain should coordinate in order to gain better performance.

Supply Chain Risk Management Driven By Action Learning

This chapter is the outcome of our consolidated learning on “Supply Chain Risk Management” and “Action Learning in Supply Chains” over a period from 2006 to 2010. We have also published several papers in this domain; please refer to the bibliography section. Although there is a substantial volume of literature on the topic of Supply Chain Management and no lack of coverage today on Risk Management, our motivation was guided by our desire to put into context, both from an academic and Industry perspective, a practical methodology for supply chain risk mitigation based on a proven theory of learning. This methodology will enable industry practitioners of supply chain management to comprehend and act upon risk i.e. identification, assessment, response, monitoring and evaluation. Risk Management in Supply Chain is not a “one-off” transaction but rather an ongoing practice of problem solving and organizational learning i.e. a continuous methodology for sustainable improvement. The methodology provides a means to structure past problems as knowledge to be used by the organization and increase preparedness for facing new challenges. In a global competitive market, successful management of risk in supply chain can be the difference between corporate success and failure.

Contracts based on Inventory Cost Share for Supply Chain Coordination

In this document it is analyzed the importance of contracts for coordination between two companies in a supply chain. In the studied situation, one company, or supplier, supplies one product to the other company, who is a retailer. The companies are going to coordinate by two types of decisions: economic (concerning prices fixed on a contract), and physical exchange (concerning the inventory to be held). Two types of contracts will be presented: one contract with a simple pricing scheme and two contracts with inventory holding cost shared among the companies of the supply chain. The objective is to show that contracts with inventory holding cost share allow the two companies to efficiently coordinate the chain they form.

An Approach of Decision-Making Support Based on Collaborative Agents for Unexpected Rush Orders Management

Decisions at different levels of the supply chain can no longer be considered independently, since they may influence profitability throughout the supply chain. This paper focuses on the interest of multi-agent paradigm for the collaborative coordination in global distribution supply chain. Multi-agent computational environments are suitable for a broad class of coordination and negotiation issues involving multiple autonomous or semiautonomous problem solving contexts. An agent-based distributed architecture is proposed for better management of rush unexpected orders. This paper proposes a first architecture validated by a real and industrial case.

An Evaluation and Scenario Analysis of the Representative Supply Chain Management Software

Supply Chain Management (SCM) has proven to be an effective tool that aids companies in the development of competitive advantages. SCM Systems are relied on to manage warehouses, transportation, trade logistics and various other issues concerning the coordinated movement of products and services from suppliers to customers. Although in today’s fast paced business environment, numerous supply chain solution tools are readily available to companies, choosing the right SCM software is not an easy task. The complexity of SCM systems creates a multifaceted issue when selecting the right software, particularly in light of the speed at which technology evolves. In this chapter, we use the approach of Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) to determine which SCM software best meets the needs of a company. The AHP approach outlined in this paper can be easily transferred to the comparison of other SCM software packages.

A New Optimization Method for Supplier Evaluation in the Context of Volume Discount

Supplier selection is a multiple criteria decision making problem that the selection process mainly involves evaluating a number of suppliers according to a set of common criteria for selecting suppliers to meet business needs. Suppliers usually offer volume discounts to encourage the buyers to order more. To select suppliers in the presence of both volume discounts and imprecise data, this chapter proposes an optimization method. A numerical example demonstrates the application of the proposed method.

Supply Chain Risk Management

Supply Chain Risk Management has increasingly becoming a more popular research area recently. Various papers, with different focus and approaches, have been published since a few years ago. This paper aims to survey supply chain risk management (SCRM) literature. Paper published in relevant journals from 2000 to 2007 will be analysed and classified into five categories: conceptual, descriptive, empirical, and exploratory cross-sectional and exploratory longitudinal. We also looked at the papers in terms of the types of risks, the unit of analysis, the industry sectors, and the risk management process or strategies addressed. The literature review will provide the basis for outlining future research opportunities in this field.

Genetic Algorithm to Solve Multi-Period, Multi-Product, Bi-Echelon Supply Chain Network Design Problem

In many multi-stage manufacturing supply chains, transportation related costs are a significant portion of final product costs. It is often crucial for successful decision making approaches in multi-stage manufacturing supply chains to explicitly account for non-linear transportation costs. In this article, we have explored this problem by considering a Two-Stage Production-Transportation (TSPT). A two-stage supply chain that faces a deterministic stream of external demands for a single product is considered. A finite supply of raw materials, and finite production at stage one has been assumed. Items are manufactured at stage one and transported to stage two, where the storage capacity of the warehouses is limited. Packaging is completed at stage two (that is, value is added to each item, but no new items are created), and the finished goods inventories are stored which is used to meet the final demand of customers. During each period, the optimized production levels in stage one, as well as transportation levels between stage one and stage two and routing structure from the production plant to warehouses and then to customers, must be determined. The authors consider “different cost structures,” for both manufacturing and transportation. This TSPT model with capacity constraint at both stages is optimized using Genetic Algorithms (GA) and the results obtained are compared with the results of other optimization techniques of complete enumeration, LINDO, and CPLEX.

Using Organizational Information Processing Theory to Examine the Relationship between Information Sharing and Supply Chain Performance

Supply chains operate under conditions of uncertainty, and chain members exchange information as a means to mitigate such uncertainty within the chain. While these exchanges have largely been viewed as a positive method of achieving operational cohesion, some supply chains appear to benefit more from increased levels of information sharing than others. To assist in explaining the performance differences experienced by supply chains engaged in information-sharing activities, a new perspective of information sharing within supply chains based on organizational information processing theory (Galbraith, 1973) is introduced. More specifically, it is posited that individual supply chains may be examined as single information processors and that their characteristics can induce complexities in the shared information—ultimately an issue that affects how supply chains process this information. Furthermore, the degree to which supply-chain members’ information systems are compatible with each other is posited to also play a significant role in information-processing capabilities.