A framework of optimization agent for supply chain management

Abstract

Effective supply chain management requires formulating and solving optimization models embedded in the multiple software agents along the supply chain. The stakeholders like manufacturers and third party delivers have their objectives, and are restricted by the constraints of delivery requirements.and resource limitations. Since a variety of situations require many combinations of models, it is not easy to prepare all the necessary models in advance. To resolve this problem, this research proposes a framework of automatically formulating and modifying optimization models. For this purpose a base model template is identified, and then it is modified to the target model. To implement the idea, we design an architecture of optimization agents AGENT-OPT2 specifically for supply chain management. AGENT-OPT2 is equipped with rule-based interoperable and flexible model modification capability. This framework is validated by applying a prototype to a cooperative delivery scheduling problem. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2006.