Production planning and automated negotiation for SMEs: An agent based e-procurement application

The research proposes an agent based approach, properly linked to production planning activities, able to support negotiation in catalogue based e-marketplace. In this context, production planning tools allow the creation of a link between commercialization and manufacturing activities, providing a better service for all the involved agents. At the same time negotiation tools take into account buyers' and sellers' identities and goals, providing better global satisfaction. A discrete event simulation environment has been properly developed. The simulation results show how to obtain an "e-marketplace mapping" in order to evaluate the real value added in a dynamic environment. This information can support Small and Medium Enterprises in e-marketplace adoption decision making process. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.