Interaction between intelligent agent strategies for real-time transportation planning

Abstract

In this paper we study the real-time scheduling of time-sensitive full truckload pickup-and-delivery jobs. The problem involves the allocation of jobs to a fixed set of vehicles which might belong to different collaborating transportation agencies. A recently proposed solution methodology for this problem is the use of a multi-agent system where shipper agents offer jobs through sequential auctions and vehicle agents bid on these jobs. In this paper we consider such a system where both the vehicle agents and the shipper agents are using profit maximizing look-ahead strategies. Our main contribution is that we study the interrelation of these strategies and their impact on the system-wide logistical costs. From our simulation results, we conclude that the system-wide logistical costs (i) are always reduced by using the look-ahead strategies instead of a myopic strategy (10-20%) and (ii) the joint effect of two look-ahead strategies is larger than the effect of an individual strategy. To provide an indication of the savings that might be realized under centralized decision making, we benchmark our results against an integer programming approach.

Decentralized Agent-based Electronic Marketplace Supply Chain Ecosystem

“…According to [11] automation of supply chain management systems has long been a principal concern of both academia and industry. Generally, two approaches of service transformation in the digital era can be observed for efficient, service-quality-oriented supply chain management:…”

“…(1) Centralised e-marketplace web portals, combining demand and supply in a temporally and spatially shared repository [12,13] and (2) Decentralised, agent-based e-marketplaces with a yellow-page dictionary service and distributed network of temporally and spatially distributed agents of supply chain partners [11,[14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25]. Each approach focuses on enriching some aspects of traditional supply chain management information systems.…”

Supply Chain Service Quality Improvement by E-marketplace Automation

“…Since the individual summands are all in the (0.1) range, in order to normalize the result, it is divided by 4. While fine-tuning the model, we might decide to ponder the individual summands, as indicated in [9]:…”

“…Such systems are sensibly implemented to identify opportunities for improved supply chain efficiency and competitiveness, to help understand how companies operating in supply chains affect each other's performance, to support the supply chain in satisfying consumer requirements and to assess the result of an implemented initiative [8]. As stated by [9] for collaborative networks, supply chains also have the need for decentralized operations where partners conduct their planning autonomously and only exchange a limited amount of information. A frequently proposed solution concept for this purpose are auction mechanisms and, more specifically, multi-agent systems.…”

“…To track service quality along supply chains, probes (defined by q) are placed between every pair of interlinked nodes. Since some of the performance indicators defined in [9] are qualitative, they are not suitable for automated service quality evaluation. Hence, only the quantitative service quality indicators shall form the basis for evaluation.…”