Computers Play the Beer Game - Can Artificial Agents Manage Supply Chains?

In this study, we model an electronic supply chain that is managed by artificial agents. We investigate whether artificial agents do better than humans when playing the MIT Beer Game. Can the artificial agents mitigate the Bullwhip effect or discover good and effective business strategies? In particular, we study the following questions: Can agents learn reasonably good policies in the face of deterministic demand with fixed lead-time? Can agents cope reasonably well in the face of stochastic demand with stochastic lead-time? Can agents learn and adapt in various contexts to play the game? Can agents cooperate across the supply chain?