Coalition protocols in manufacturing e-marketplaces: creating and measuring the competitive advantage

An Agent based architecture for added value services in manufacturing neutral e-marketplaces

The Impact Of Demand And Inventory Management Policies On Bullwhip Effect In Production Networks

The bullwhip effect is a phenomenon consisting in variance amplification of orders as they move up a supply chain. The immediate bullwhip effect consequences are the increase of inventory costs, poor custoiner services and inefficient utilization of resources due to the difficulties of production planning activities in highly variable conditions. There are many factors that cause the bullwhip effect, but if is particularly due to demand forecasting and inventory management policies. In this paper the impact on bullwhip effect of different policies to manage demand and inventories has been evaluated through discrete event simulation, using the ARENA (R) simulation package.

Production Planning in Production Networks: Models for Medium and Short-term Planning

Distributed production networks are structures which are considered able to provide the organisational agility and efficiency necessary to compete in the global market. The performance of such organisations heavily depends on the ability of those involved in the network to coordinate their activities. Two approaches are available for managing complex distributed production networks: a centralised approach, where a unique entity (the planner, for instance) has all the necessary information to make planning decisions for the entire network; or a decentralised approach where each entity in the network has the necessary information and knowledge to make autonomous planning decisions, while the …