Integrated methodological frameworks for modelling agent-based advanced supply chain planning systems: A systematic literature review

Abstract

<p><strong>Purpose:</strong> The objective of this paper is to provide a systematic literature review of recent developments in methodological frameworks for the modelling and simulation of agent-based advanced supply chain planning systems.</p><p><strong>Design/methodology/approach:</strong> A systematic literature review is provided to identify, select and make an analysis and a critical summary of all suitable studies in the area. It is organized into two blocks: the first one covers agent-based supply chain planning systems in general terms, while the second one specializes the previous search to identify those works explicitly containing methodological aspects.</p><p><strong>Findings:</strong> Among sixty suitable manuscripts identified in the primary literature search, only seven explicitly considered the methodological aspects. In addition, we noted that, in general, the notion of advanced supply chain planning is not considered unambiguously, that the social and individual aspects of the agent society are not taken into account in a clear manner in several studies and that a significant part of the works are of a theoretical nature, with few real-scale industrial applications. An integrated framework covering all phases of the modelling and simulation process is still lacking in the literature visited.</p><p><strong>Research limitations/implications:</strong> The main research limitations are related to the period covered (last four years), the selected scientific databases, the selected language (i.e. English) and the use of only one assessment framework for the descriptive evaluation part.</p><p><strong>Practical implications: </strong>The identification of recent works in the domain and discussion concerning their limitations can help pave the way for new and innovative researches towards a complete methodological framework for agent-based advanced supply chain planning systems.</p><p><strong>Originality/value: </strong>As there are no recent state-of-the-art reviews in the domain of methodological frameworks for agent-based supply chain planning, this paper contributes to systematizing and consolidating what has been done in recent years and uncovers interesting research gaps for future studies in this emerging field.</p

Decentralised capacitated planning with minimal-information sharing in a 2-echelon supply chain

“…This study was at strategic level since they were interested in supplier selection based on a call for proposals and evaluation with AHP. At the tactical level, a review about the methodological framework for modelling and simulation of agent-based advanced planning systems was proposed in Santa-Eulalia et al (2011). In their conclusion, they emphasised the trend to focus on the supply chain relationship and production planning and control.…”

“…In order to capture the inherently decentralised nature of supply chains, one of the most prominent categories of modelling and simulation techniques is the Multi-Agent System (MAS) (Santa-Eulalia et al 2011). Gjerdrum, Shah, and Papageorgiou (2001) used a MAS in order to combine the simulation of decentralised decision making, and optimisation techniques, on a 2-echelon supply chain.…”

Accomm: adaptive system for supply network operational planning

“…From a narrower production approach, applications were implemented in the wine industry (van Dam et al , 2008), mining (Ding et al , 2009), oil refinery (Sinha et al , 2009) and automobile parts industrial sectors (Ibrahimov et al , 2011). From a SN approach, only forest industry (Santa-Eulalia et al , 2011), fashion (Cimino and Marcelloni, 2011), port logistics (Lim et al , 2007), beef traceability (Liang et al , 2015), aero spatial (Kruse et al , 2013) and construction services (Soroor et al , 2012) are mentioned. There are a few holistic SN models regarding agribusiness identified in this literature review.…”

An Agent-Based Collaborative Model For Supply Chain Management Simulation

“…In an attempt to make progress in this area, researchers use various methods for modelling the dynamics of SCs. The multi-agent system (MAS) approach has appeared as one of the most adequate modelling tool for tackling various aspects of SC coordination problems (Santa-Eulalia et al 2011). Indeed, considering the fact that most of the SCs involve enterprises with independent ownerships (requiring the ability to model information asymmetry and distributed/decentralized mode of controls), applicability of traditional modelling approaches is limited and unrealistic (Govindu and Chinnam 2010).…”