A Generic Framework for Simulation of Supply Networks with Bargaining Agents

In this paper we present the main aspects of the problem of simulation of a supply chain using an agent-based system. It is emphasized that the difference with other simulation models is that the principal concept of the simulation environment is the event concept. Agents are interacting via action/events, these concepts being introduced previously by the AOR modeling language. The configuration of the supply network is model based, the model being described in AORml. Because we use negotiation as a basis for agent-to-agent interaction, we specialize the AOR concepts in order to have a better mapping with the problems of supply network simulation. In a supply network, the negotiation is more bargaining (fallback) oriented, and we present some scenarios in this case, which clearly differentiate the generic model of interaction from the auction based one. We show how the experimentation with such a simulation test bed can be used to implement agent-based information systems for supply network management.