Ontology based Multi Agent System for Improved Procurement Process: Application for the Handicraft Domain

Suitable suppliers’ recommendation forms the basis for a successful procurement process. An automated personalization of procurement opportunities relies on the buyer and the seller profiles consistency. However, dealing with their profiles matching is not a trivial task. In fact, each contextual detail may play a crucial role in the decision making procedure especially when final users express very specific and variable needs in a heterogeneous and inconstant environment. In this paper, we designed and developed a multi agent system (MAS) for the supply chain automatization. It includes two supplier selection levels followed by a negotiation module relying on the handicraft woman online situation. Several handicraft business ontologies in addition to multi-side profile ontology are developed in order to drive the agent communication with the internal and external environment. © 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. Selection and peer-review under responsibility of KES International.