The architecture and business value of a semi-cooperative, agent-based supply chain management system

Multi-agent systems have the potential to improve supply chain management. The adoption of such systems has been limited, as their design often neglects existing organizational realities and the business value for the various stakeholders is not clear. In this paper, a multi-agent system improving supply chain management is designed and its business value is evaluated. We present the semi-cooperative architecture and evaluate the benefits using agent-based simulation. We found that the multi-agent system increases the level of flexibility in the supply chain and enables supply chain members to become more responsive. This has a positive impact on the ordering lead-time, human processing time, the inventory levels and number of stock-outs. 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.