Multiagent based open source for supply chain management using JADE

Abstract

Supply chain management (SCM) is a verychallenging problem that us leveraging the e-commerce explosion. Today's supply chains are essentially static, because they rely on long-term relationship among key trading partners. Dynamic practices are vital because they offer better matches between suppliers and customers as market conditions change. Multi-agent systems (MAS) offer new perspectives compared to conventional, centrally organized architectures in the scope of supply chain management (SCM). Their structure inherently meets the requirements of decentralized supply chains, whereas conventional SCM systems are often restricted in terms of dynamic behavior, handling severe disturbances at supplier sites as well as dealing with highly customized or complex products. Since necessary data are not available within the whole supply chain, an integrated approach to production planning and control taking into account all the partners involved is not feasible. In this paper a MAS architecture integrating various intelligent agent systems is presented to address the problem.