A flexible agent system for change adaptation in supply chains

The importance of supply chain management is increasing with globalization and the advancement of electronic business. Supply chains are dynamic due to frequent changes in suppliers, customers, and products. However, information systems for supply chains are not flexible enough to adapt to the changes, requiring high cost and time for re-implementation and re-customization. This paper suggests a flexible agent system for supply chains that can adapt to the changes in transactions introduced by new products or new trading partners. The flexible agent system consists of an interpretable conversation policy model, a procedure for exchanging new conversation policies, and a mechanism for actual transactions with newly acquired conversation policies. By using the flexible agent system, formation of supply chains becomes more robust to the dynamic changes. To show how the approach can be realized, a PC supply chain application is illustrated with a prototype agent platform. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.