Experience Management for Multi-agent Supply Chain

1、1/22ExperienceManagementforMulti-agentSupplyChains:Trust,PlanningandNegotiationGavinFinnie*andZhaohaoSun***SchoolofInformationTechnology,BondUniversity,GoldCoastQld4229Australia**SchoolofEconomicsandInformationSystems,UniversityofWollongong,NSW2522Australia1INTRODUCTIONThesupplychain(SC)isaworld-widenetworkofsuppliers,manufacturingplants,warehouses,distributioncenters,wholesalersandretailerswhererawmaterialsarepurchased,processedandtransformedtobesoldtocustomers(Foxetal,2000).Customersatisfacti。

2、onishighlydependentontheflexibilityoftheSCsuchasitsabilitytorespondtochangesindemand.Supplychainmanagement(SCM)iscurrentlymainlybasedonolderinformationretrievalmethods.Itgenerallyhasnottakenadvantageofthe‘dynamic’informationthatisnowavailableduetodevelopmentsininformationandcommunicationtechnology(ICT)andknowledgemanagement(KM).Thefocushasalsochangedfromasupply-sideviewofoptimizingproductionefficiencytoademand–sideviewofconsumersdrivingtheprocess.Supplychainsaredevelopingintodemandnetworksthatad。

3、apttoconsumerdemandinalmostrealtime(Silisqueetal,2003).Withmovingtowardsreal-timeenterprisesthereisanimperativeneedforrapidautomatedandintelligentresponseinthesupplynetwork.Further,suppliersandcustomersintraditionalSChavebeentransformedintointelligentagentsofsuppliersorcustomersine-supplychain(e-SC)sothatane-SCcanbeconsideredasaformofagentsociety.Underthisnewsituation,howtomanagetrustandnegotiationbetweentheintelligentagentswithinane-SCisasignificantissue,whichismorecomplexthanthatinthetradition。

4、alSC.Thisisbecausethetrustandnegotiationinane-SCarebasedoninteractionandcommunicationbetweenhumansuppliersandcustomers,betweenhumansuppliers(orcustomers)andtheirintelligentagents,betweenintelligentsupplieragentsandintelligentbuyeragents(Sun&Finnie,2004a).ExperienceofsuppliersandcustomersplaysanimportantroleinaSC.Inparticular,customerexperiencemanagement(CEM)willbecomeamajorissueine-SCbecausethelatterisacustomer-centeredserviceintheInternetworld(Sun&Lau,2005).Furthercustomerexperienceisaprerequis。

5、iteforcustomersatisfactioninSC,whichishighlydependentontheflexibilityoftheSCsuchasitsabilitytorespondtochangesindemand.Becausetheselectionandinteractionspaceofcustomersine-SCistheoreticallyinfinite,howtomanagecustomerexperienceine-SCalsobecomesasignificantissueforanye-SCproviders.Experiencemanagement(EM)isanewconceptinInformationSystems(IS)andInformationTechnology(IT),althoughKMhasbecomewell-establishedinBusinessManagementandArtificialIntelligence(AI).However,experiencehasalwaysplayedasimilarrul。

6、etoknowledgefororganizations.Experiencebasedreasoning(EBR)isareasoningparadigmusingpriorexperiencestosolveproblems,andcouldbeconsideredanadvancedformofknowledge-basedreasoning(Sun&Finnie,2005a).ThistechnicalreportwilldeveloptheconceptofEMand2/22EBRandapplythemtointelligentagentsinthee-SC.Inparticulartheuseofexperienceinestablishingtrustinotheragentswillbeexplored.Anyorganizationwillhavesomehistoryofdealingwithproblemsrelatingtoordersandperturbationsinthenetworkandthesolutionsapplied,aswellassome。

7、formalprocessesfordealingwiththese.Torespondautomatically,softwaremustbecapableofreactingasonewouldexpectahumanagenttodo.Theinformationavailabletotheagentcancomefromavarietyofsources,includinganalysisofhistoricalinformation/experienceattheinformational/planninglevel.Inareal-timeenterprise,collectionofinformationanduseoftheanalyticsneedstomovetoareal-timebusinessintelligenceenvironment.Multiagentsystemstechnologyhasbeensuccessfullyappliedinmanyfieldssuchase-commerce(Sun&Finnie,2004a)andsupplychai。

8、nmanagement(SCM)(Finnie,Barker&Sun2004).Anumberofagent-basedapproacheshavebeenputforwardforSCM.Thistechnicalreportwilldeveloptheaforementionedissuesbyprovidingsomemethodologyandintelligenttechniquesformultiagenttrustandnegotiationinane-SCbasedonEM.TheseincludetheuseofEMtoenableagentsinane-SCtolearnfrompriorexperienceindealingwithsuppliersandcustomersandissuesrelatingtotrustanddeceptionintheagentworldofthee-SC.Therestofthistechnicalreportisorganizedasfollows:Section2examinesfundamentalsofe-SCmana。

9、gement.Section3reviewstheconceptofexperiencemanagement.Section4explorescooperationandnegotiationine-supplychains.Section5discussestrustanddeceptionine-supplychains.Section6proposesaunifiedmodelofintegratingcooperationandnegotiation,trustanddeceptionine-supplychains.Section7endsthistechnicalreportwithsomeconcludingremarks.2FUNDAMENTALSOFE-SUPPLYCHAINMANAGEMENTAsupplychain(SC)canbebrokenintothreeparts:anupstreampart,aninternalpartandadownstreampart(Turbanetal,2006).Theupstreampartencompassesallthe。

10、activitiesinvolvedinmaterialandserviceinputsfromsuppliers,theinternalpartinvolvesthemanufacturingandpackagingofproducts,andthedownstreampartinvolvesthedistributionandsaleofgoodstodistributorsandcustomers.TherearethreedifferentviewpointsforaSC:supplierviewpoint,intermediaryviewpointandend-customerviewpoint.Fromasupplierviewpoint,theSCisatree,therootofwhichisthesupplier.Wecanconsiderthistreeassupplier-centredsupplytreeoftheSC,asshowninFig.1.Theoutputdegreeoftherootofthistree(supplyflow)shouldbeasla。