Publication Type

Journal Article

Version

acceptedVersion

Publication Date

2007

Abstract

Real-time supply chain management in a rapidly changing environment requires reactive and dynamic collaboration among participating entities. In this work, we model supply chain as a multi-agent system where agents are subject to an adjustable autonomy. The autonomy of an agent refers to its capability to make and influence decisions within a multi-agent system. Adjustable autonomy means changing the autonomy of the agents during runtime as a response to changes in the environment. In the context of a supply chain, different entities will have different autonomy levels and objective functions as the environment changes, and the goal is to design a real-time control technique to maintain global consistency and optimality. We propose a centralized fuzzy framework for sensing and translating environmental changes to the changes in autonomy levels and objectives of the agents. In response to the changes, a coalition-formation algorithm will be executed to allow agents to negotiate and re-establish global consistency and optimality. We apply our proposed framework to two supply chain control problems with drastic changes in the environment: one in controlling a military hazardous material storage facility under peace-to-war transition, and the other in supply management during a crisis (such as bird-flu or terrorist attacks). Experimental results show that by adjusting autonomy in response to environmental changes, the behavior of the supply chain system can be controlled accordingly.

Keywords

Crisis management, Fuzzy controller, Military warehouse, Multi-agent system, Real-time control

Discipline

Artificial Intelligence and Robotics | Management Information Systems | Operations and Supply Chain Management

Publication

Computers and Operations Research

Volume

35

Issue

11

First Page

3452

Last Page

3464

ISSN

0305-0548

Identifier

10.1016/j.cor.2007.01.027

Publisher

Elsevier

Additional URL

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cor.2007.01.027

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