Fu-ren Lin

Information infrastructure for electronic virtual organization management

Abstract In this paper we present a proposed information infrastructure framework for supporting management of electronic virtual organizations. We identify the life cycle phases (and their associated decision processes) of virtual organizations, describe the requirements for an information infrastructure to support the management of virtual organizations throughout their life cycle, and discuss how Inter/Intranet technologies provide the mechanisms required for virtual organization management. The importance of information infrastructure to virtual organization management is illustrated through a set of simulations that compare performance of traditional static (stable partnership) supply chains and dynamic (virtual) supply chains utilizing a dynamic material allocation (DMA) strategy to respond to environmental change. Our overall conclusion is that an information infrastructure, utilizing Internet and Intranet technology, can support the communication required for effective virtual organization management throughout its life cycle.

Effects of information sharing on supply chain performance in electronic commerce

As businesses adopt electronic commerce, information exchange between business partners within a supply chain becomes more essential. Information exchange is often considered when companies implement the Extranet. This study aims to analyze the impact of various levels of information sharing including order, inventory, and demand information, which is based on transaction costs. This study further examines the effects on supply chain performance in electronic commerce. Specifically, the multiagent simulation system Swarm is employed to simulate and analyze the buyer-seller correlation in sharing information among business partners in supply chains. Our findings indicate that the more detailed information shared between firms, the lower the total cost, the higher the order fulfillment rate, and the shorter the order cycle time. In other words, information sharing may reduce the demand uncertainty that firms normally encounter. Firms that share information between trading partners tend to transact with a reduced number of suppliers. In sum, this work illustrates the effects of various levels of information sharing on supply chain performance in electronic commerce.

Reengineering the Order Fulfillment Process in Supply Chain Networks

An order fulfillment process (OFP) starts with receiving orders from customers and ends with delivering the finished goods. The order fulfillment process is complex because it is composed of several activities, executed by different functional entities, and heavily interdependent among the tasks, resources, and agents involved in the process. A supply chain network (SCN) is a network of autonomous or semi-autonomous business entities involved, through upstream and downstream links, in the different processes and activities that produce goods or services to customers. As manufacturing practice shifts toward the outsourcing paradigm, the OFP is more likely to be executed throughout SCNs. It becomes imperative to integrate the OFP into SCNs to improve the OFP. Generalizing from the variety and complexity of SCNs, this study identifies several main types of SCN structures and addresses OFP issues based on them.The objective of reengineering the OFP is to achieve agility in the process in terms of efficiency, flexibility, robustness, and adaptability. We propose a multiagent information system (MAIS) approach for reengineering the OFP in SCNs. The MAIS models the OFP in SCNs and evaluates OFP performance by applying the proposed strategies. A multiagent simulation platform, called Swarm, is enhanced and applied for modeling the MAIS; and experiments are conducted to simulate the OFP and then evaluate the potential improvement strategies to identify useful strategies for improving the OFP. The strategies we evaluated include (1) coordinating demand management policies, (2) information sharing strategies, (3) synchronizing material and capacity availability, (4) dynamic resource allocation, and (5) the combination of various strategies. The results shed light on identifying the main effects of various strategies on OFP performance. The insights from utilizing various strategies in different SCNs help reengineer the OFP in SCNs.

A generic structure for business process modeling

Among different BPR strategies and methodologies, one common feature is to capture existing processes and represent new processes adequately. Business process modeling plays a crucial role on such effort. This paper proposes a generic structure for modeling business processes in order to capture essential concepts of business process and represent them structurally. The generic structure possesses two main features suitable for business process modeling: one is that it can represent a business process in various concerns and multiple layers of abstraction, and the other is that it lowers the barriers between process representation and model analysis by embedding verification and validation with the model. The generic modeling method is illustrated by an order fulfillment process in supply chain networks.

Modeling supply-chain networks by a multi-agent system

The article proposes a multi-agent information system (MAIS) approach to model the order fulfilment process (OFP) in supply chain networks (SCNs). An order fulfilment process starts with receiving orders from customers and ends with delivery of the finished goods. As manufacturing practice is shifting toward the outsourcing paradigm, the OFP is more likely to be executed throughout SCNs. It becomes imperative to integrate the OFP into SCNs to improve the OFP. The proposed multi-agent information system (MAIS) approach is used for modeling the OFP in SCNs, and evaluating OFP performance by applying the proposed strategies. The objective of reengineering the OFP is to achieve agility of the process in terms of efficiency, flexibility, robustness and adaptability. A multi-agent simulation platform, called Swarm, is enhanced and applied for modeling the MAIS, and experiments are conducted to simulate the OFP in SCNs in a multi-agent environment. Based an the Swarm simulation platform, we model the OFP in SCNs, simulate the OFP, and then evaluate the potential OFP improvement strategies to identify useful strategies for improving the OFP. The results shed light on identifying the main effects of various strategies on OFP performance. The insights of utilizing various strategies in different SCNs help redesign the OFP in SCNs.

Integrating multi-agent negotiation to resolve constraints in fulfilling supply chain orders

Abstract As the order fulfillment process (OFP) in supply chains shifts to outsourcing paradigm, the OFP performance relies on the coordination among supply chain partners to reach executable and effective plans. The coordination of OFP among supply chain partners can be viewed as a distributed constraint satisfaction problem (DCSP). This study adds the multi-agent negotiation mechanism to enhance the existing methods to solve the DCSP, and then evaluates the integrated system’s performance through experimentation on the OFP in the context of the metal industry. The experimental results show that the integrated system outperforms the existing distributed constraint satisfaction algorithms in various demand patterns.

Business-to-business electronic commerce and convergent assembly supply chain management

Electronic commerce (e-commerce) can occur between a business and its customers, as well as between a business and its suppliers. To facilitate interorganizational e-commerce it is often necessary to share supply and demand information between supply chain partners. Based on our analysis of supply chains in several industries we identify the mechanisms (business processes) required for effective supply chain management. We also identify the information system components needed to support these mechanisms, show how the individual components can be integrated into an information infrastructure framework and identify some technologies currently available that can fit within our proposed infrastructure. We illustrate the usefulness of our framework by simulating convergent assembly (commonly associated with motor vehicle and aerospace production) supply chain performance under various information-sharing strategies supported by our proposed infrastructure. We find that inventory costs can be reduced while maintaining acceptable order fulfilment cycle times. This is true because information, which provides the basis for enhanced coordination and reduced uncertainty, can substitute for inventory.

A unified framework for managing Web-based services

The emergence of Web technologies enables a variety of Web-based service applications, which can be examined from business process integration, supply chain management, and knowledge management perspectives. To categorize existing Web-based services while foreseeing potential new types, a unified view is needed to represent the structures and processes of Web-based services. This paper proposes a general framework to identify essential structures and operations of Web-based services, and then models these components. We articulate the framework with Web technologies, such as Web service and semantic Web, multi-agent and peer-to-peer, and Web information retrieval and mining. Two comprehensive examples in insurance and knowledge services are used to elaborate the use of Web-based service framework in fulfilling business processes. This study synthesizes essential structures and processes of Web-based services to build a framework for researchers and practitioners to develop Web-based services and techniques.

Using multi-agent simulation and learning to design new business processes

Business process modeling, analysis, and then redesign are the central task in the efforts of re-engineering business processes. Frequently reviewing and promptly changing business processes to adapt to new business environment is the key to maintain agility under the competitive global market. It is imperative to enhance the adaptability of business processes. This paper proposes a multi-agent information system based on Swarm, a multi-agent simulation platform, to simulate business processes and incorporate reinforcement learning to obtain better process adaptability. The resulting system, called BPSLS, is elaborated and evaluated by the order fulfilment process in supply chain networks.

The design and evaluation of an intelligent sales agent for online persuasion and negotiation

Online purchases from e-stores are getting popular among Internet users. Although many e-commerce activities, such as auctions, bargaining, and recommendation services are available, most e-stores lack clerk-like mechanisms to persuade potential buyers into buying products and to bargain with them for making a good deal. The objectives of this research are to design a lab prototype of a sales agent with persuasion and negotiation capabilities and to evaluate its effectiveness as a virtual clerk in an e-store. The prototypical intelligent sales agent (ISA) is equipped with reinforcement learning capabilities and an abstract argument framework. We conduct both laboratory and Internet experiments to assess ISAs performance. The experimental results reveal that an e-store embedded within such a sales agent can improve a sellers surplus and increase a buyers product valuation, willingness-to-pay, and satisfaction with the e-store.