A coordination framework for distributed supply chains

Abstract

Supply chain is a network of cooperating organizations that are involved through upstream and downstream linkages. Such a complex system cannot be modeled simply by mathematical equations without simplification of the problem. Recently, Multi-Agent System (MAS) is proposed as a modeling technique to represent supply chain networks. In fact, many application problems in MASs that are concerned with finding a consistent combination of agent actions can be formalized as Distributed Constraints Satisfaction Problem (DCSP). The main purpose of this paper is to propose a novel coordination framework by adopting the DCSP philosophy for distributed supply chains, which are modeled by MASs, subjected to uncertainties. Simulation results indicate that the proposed mechanism outperforms traditional stochastic modeling in solving supply chain dynamics in terms of total cost and fill rate of the system. © 2004 IEEE.