Carsten Böhle

A Framework for the Development of Multi-Agent Systems in Supply Chain Management

The application of multi-agent systems in the context of supply chain management has been much discussed during the last years and several implementations have emerged within research. Yet very few applications are actually being used in practice. The reason for this lies in an existing gap between domain concepts and agent technology, which complicates the application oriented development. A framework can support this process in order to devise customized and flexible solutions by providing the necessary agent modules and a supply chain management specific ontology. Within this paper, an analysis of requirements on multi-agent systems that stem from the domain of supply chain management is carried out. This forms the basis for the development of the architecture of the multi-agent framework whose design and implementation is described. In the following, common modules are designed and implemented to provide both a sophisticated and generic basis for specific projects.

Guiding the Introduction of Big Data in Organizations: A Methodology with Business- and Data-Driven Ideation and Enterprise Architecture Management-Based Implementation

Researchers and practitioners frequently assume that big data can be leveraged to create value for organizations implementing it. Decisions for big data idea generation and implementation need careful consideration of multiple factors. However, no scientifically grounded and unbiased method to structure such an assessment and to guide implementation exists yet. This paper describes a methodology based on IT value theory and workgroup ideation guiding big data idea generation, idea assessment and implementation management. Distinct business and data driven perspectives are distinguished to account for big data specifics. Enterprise Architecture Management and Business Model Generation techniques are used in individual steps for execution. A first prototypical application in the context of Supply Chain Management illustrates the applicability of the method.

Integrierte agentenbasierte Produktions- und Logistikplanung in der Supply Chain

ZusammenfassungMulti-Agenten-Systeme sind schon oft für den Einsatz in Supply Chains vorgeschlagen worden. Trotzdem haben sie in der Praxis noch keine weite Verbreitung gefunden. Dieser Beitrag zeigt auf, wie sich Agentensysteme entwickeln lassen, die besser auf die Anforderungen des Supply Chain Managements angepasst sind und insbesondere die im Vergleich zur Produktionsplanung vernachlässigte Logistikplanung integrieren.

A Lot Sizing Model with Integrated Tour Planning

Abstract In spite of the importance of effcient supply chain cooperation, planning in production and transportation are still conducted separately today. This paper presents a model that simultaneously creates lot-based plans for both production and transportation. It is assumed that transports are organized as milk runs, i.e. one truck stops at several suppliers before heading to the buyer. The integration of production planning and inbound logistics tour planning into a dynamic model has not been studied before. After a brief review of literature on integrated planning models, requirements for a model that is able to solve the outlined problem are given. A mathematical model is formulated along with a heuristic which is necessary because the model combines production planning and vehicle routing which are both computationally intensive problems and thus not mathematically solvable in acceptable time. Results show that supply chain-wide costs can be reduced with the help of the presented algorithm. Some comments on the applicability in practice and the need for further research are given in an outlook.

Workflow-based agents for Supply Chain Management

This paper presents the application of workflow-based agents to the field of Supply Chain Management. While the use of multi-agent systems has long been advocated for the coordination of planning between companies and different prototypes have been implemented, a comprehensive discussion on what technologies and architectures are most beneficial for this case and how these can be provided for specific domains has not been hold. Concerning Supply Chain Management, using workflows to model processes both within and between companies seems a promising approach. The paper gives a technical description of the prototype implementation as well as an example of how to make use of it.

Using Capability-Based Planning for Designing Cooperation Between Automotive Manufacturers and Logistics Service Providers

Automotive Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) are constantly establishing new manufacturing plants in various countries. The establishment of new plants offers plenty of opportunities to the OEM but at the same time the problem to integrate these new plants into its global production and logistics network is posed. One way of handling this problem is to outsource some of the needed capabilities (macro level business functions, e.g. warehouse management) to Logistics Service Providers (LSPs). The OEM is then faced with the question, which capabilities to outsource when establishing a new plant. The LSP on the other hand has to evaluate which products and services to offer to an OEM. The purpose of this paper is to outline the development of a methodology based on techniques from Enterprise Architecture (EA) and more specifically Capability-based Planning (CBP) that helps answer these questions.

Milk Run Optimization with Delivery Windows and Hedging Against Uncertainty

Milk runs are an important transportation concept, e.g. in the automotive industry. Trucks start from a depot, pick up goods at different suppliers, and deliver those goods to a single customer. Therefore, milk runs are technically a pick up and delivery problem with multiple pick ups and a single delivery. They make it possible to deliver small lots eficiently and thus lower average inventory levels. Prerequisite is that there are several frequent orders from suppliers that are closely located, otherwise transshipment centers will be used in spite of handling costs. Pickup&Delivery problems calculate routes for single days, sometimes with the additional restriction of time windows for delivery. Models and algorithms for these problems exist and can help in practice as leadtimes are usually very short, in most cases only one day. It has been discussed whether it would be better to allow for delivery windows of a few days so that carriers have more leeway for route optimization (cf. [1]). Now the routing problem is extended with the problem of allocating orders to days. The integrated solution requires vehicles to make multiple trips and is formulated as the VRP with Multiple Trips (VRPM). The VRPM has found only little attention so far: “Although in practice multiple route assignment is common, there is a shortage of papers covering this feature.”[2] It is even more interesting to look at the problem from a dynamic point of view, i.e. to iterate through the days and to assign incoming orders to days without having information on future orders.