The interdisciplinary study of coordination
ACM Computing Surveys (CSUR)
The industrial virtual enterprise
Communications of the ACM
Industrial and practical applications of DAI
Multiagent systems
Multi-Agent coordination based on tokens: reduction of the bullwhip effect in a forest supply chain
AAMAS '03 Proceedings of the second international joint conference on Autonomous agents and multiagent systems
Software component architecture in supply chain management
Computers in Industry
An Agent-Based Dynamic Information Network for Supply Chain Management
BT Technology Journal
Decentralized supply chain planning framework for third party logistics partnership
Computers and Industrial Engineering
Extended enterprise resource planning: conceptual approach using multiagent systems
ACMOS'08 Proceedings of the 10th WSEAS International Conference on Automatic Control, Modelling & Simulation
Agent-based negotiation and decision making for dynamic supply chain formation
Engineering Applications of Artificial Intelligence
Study of the performance of multi-behaviour agents for supply chain planning
Computers in Industry
Supply chain formation using agent negotiation
Decision Support Systems
Simulation of cross-border competitions of free Internet content providers
Computers in Industry
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A new approach of coordination of decisions in a multi-site system is proposed. It is based this approach on a multi-agent concept and on the principle of distributed network of enterprises. For this purpose, each enterprise is defined as autonomous and performs simultaneously at the local and global levels. The basic component of our approach is a so-called virtual enterprise node (VEN), where the enterprise network is represented as a set of tiers (like in a product breakdown structure). Within the network, each partner constitutes a VEN, which is in contact with several customers and suppliers. Exchanges between the VENs ensure the autonomy of decision, and guarantee the consistency of information and material flows. Only two complementary VEN agents are necessary: one for external interactions, the negotiator agent (NA) and one for the planning of internal decisions, the planner agent (PA). If supply problems occur in the network, two other agents are defined: the tier negotiator agent (TNA) working at the tier level only and the supply chain mediator agent (SCMA) working at the level of the enterprise network. These two agents are only active when the perturbation occurs. Otherwise, the VENs process the flow of information alone. With this new approach, managing enterprise network becomes much more transparent and looks like managing a simple enterprise in the network. The use of a multi-agent system (MAS) allows physical distribution of the decisional system, and procures a heterarchical organization structure with a decentralized control that guaranties the autonomy of each entity and the flexibility of the network.