Experience Management for Multi-agent Supply Chain

1/22ExperienceManagementforMulti-agentSupplyChains:Trust,PlanningandNegotiationGavinFinnie*andZhaohaoSun***SchoolofInformationTechnology,BondUniversity,GoldCoastQld4229Australia**SchoolofEconomicsandInformationSystems,UniversityofWollongong,NSW2522Australia1INTRODUCTIONThesupplychain(SC)isaworld-widenetworkofsuppliers,manufacturingplants,warehouses,distributioncenters,wholesalersandretailerswhererawmaterialsarepurchased,processedandtransformedtobesoldtocustomers(Foxetal,2000).CustomersatisfactionishighlydependentontheflexibilityoftheSCsuchasitsabilitytorespondtochangesindemand.Supplychainmanagement(SCM)iscurrentlymainlybasedonolderinformationretrievalmethods.Itgenerallyhasnottakenadvantageofthe‘dynamic’informationthatisnowavailableduetodevelopmentsininformationandcommunicationtechnology(ICT)andknowledgemanagement(KM).Thefocushasalsochangedfromasupply-sideviewofoptimizingproductionefficiencytoademand–sideviewofconsumersdrivingtheprocess.Supplychainsaredevelopingintodemandnetworksthatadapttoconsumerdemandinalmostrealtime(Silisqueetal,2003).Withmovingtowardsreal-timeenterprisesthereisanimperativeneedforrapidautomatedandintelligentresponseinthesupplynetwork.Further,suppliersandcustomersintraditionalSChavebeentransformedintointelligentagentsofsuppliersorcustomersine-supplychain(e-SC)sothatane-SCcanbeconsideredasaformofagentsociety.Underthisnewsituation,howtomanagetrustandnegotiationbetweentheintelligentagentswithinane-SCisasignificantissue,whichismorecomplexthanthatinthetraditionalSC.Thisisbecausethetrustandnegotiationinane-SCarebasedoninteractionandcommunicationbetweenhumansuppliersandcustomers,betweenhumansuppliers(orcustomers)andtheirintelligentagents,betweenintelligentsupplieragentsandintelligentbuyeragents(Sun&Finnie,2004a).ExperienceofsuppliersandcustomersplaysanimportantroleinaSC.Inparticular,customerexperiencemanagement(CEM)willbecomeamajorissueine-SCbecausethelatterisacustomer-centeredserviceintheInternetworld(Sun&Lau,2005).FurthercustomerexperienceisaprerequisiteforcustomersatisfactioninSC,whichishighlydependentontheflexibilityoftheSCsuchasitsabilitytorespondtochangesindemand.Becausetheselectionandinteractionspaceofcustomersine-SCistheoreticallyinfinite,howtomanagecustomerexperienceine-SCalsobecomesasignificantissueforanye-SCproviders.Experiencemanagement(EM)isanewconceptinInformationSystems(IS)andInformationTechnology(IT),althoughKMhasbecomewell-establishedinBusinessManagementandArtificialIntelligence(AI).However,experiencehasalwaysplayedasimilarruletoknowledgefororganizations.Experiencebasedreasoning(EBR)isareasoningparadigmusingpriorexperiencestosolveproblems,andcouldbeconsideredanadvancedformofknowledge-basedreasoning(Sun&Finnie,2005a).ThistechnicalreportwilldeveloptheconceptofEMand2/22EBRandapplythemtointelligentagentsinthee-SC.Inparticulartheuseofexperienceinestablishingtrustinotheragentswillbeexplored.Anyorganizationwillhavesomehistoryofdealingwithproblemsrelatingtoordersandperturbationsinthenetworkandthesolutionsapplied,aswellassomeformalprocessesfordealingwiththese.Torespondautomatically,softwaremustbecapableofreactingasonewouldexpectahumanagenttodo.Theinformationavailabletotheagentcancomefromavarietyofsources,includinganalysisofhistoricalinformation/experienceattheinformational/planninglevel.Inareal-timeenterprise,collectionofinformationanduseoftheanalyticsneedstomovetoareal-timebusinessintelligenceenvironment.Multiagentsystemstechnologyhasbeensuccessfullyappliedinmanyfieldssuchase-commerce(Sun&Finnie,2004a)andsupplychainmanagement(SCM)(Finnie,Barker&Sun2004).Anumberofagent-basedapproacheshavebeenputforwardforSCM.Thistechnicalreportwilldeveloptheaforementionedissuesbyprovidingsomemethodologyandintelligenttechniquesformultiagenttrustandnegotiationinane-SCbasedonEM.TheseincludetheuseofEMtoenableagentsinane-SCtolearnfrompriorexperienceindealingwithsuppliersandcustomersandissuesrelatingtotrustanddeceptionintheagentworldofthee-SC.Therestofthistechnicalreportisorganizedasfollows:Section2examinesfundamentalsofe-SCmanagement.Section3reviewstheconceptofexperiencemanagement.Section4explorescooperationandnegotiationine-supplychains.Section5discussestrustanddeceptionine-supplychains.Section6proposesaunifiedmodelofintegratingcooperationandnegotiation,trustanddeceptionine-supplychains.Section7endsthistechnicalreportwithsomeconcludingremarks.2FUNDAMENTALSOFE-SUPPLYCHAINMANAGEMENTAsupplychain(SC)canbebrokenintothreeparts:anupstreampart,aninternalpartandadownstreampart(Turbanetal,2006).Theupstreampartencompassesalltheactivitiesinvolvedinmaterialandserviceinputsfromsuppliers,theinternalpartinvolvesthemanufacturingandpackagingofproducts,andthedownstreampartinvolvesthedistributionandsaleofgoodstodistributorsandcustomers.TherearethreedifferentviewpointsforaSC:supplierviewpoint,intermediaryviewpointandend-customerviewpoint.Fromasupplierviewpoint,theSCisatree,therootofwhichisthesupplier.Wecanconsiderthistreeassupplier-centredsupplytreeoftheSC,asshowninFig.1.Theoutputdegreeoftherootofthistree(supplyflow)shouldbeasla