Concept of Sustainable Supply Chain Management Using Multi-agent System: Negotiation by Linear Physical Programming

Abstract

Industry and academia are both making efforts to realize a sustainable society; an important part of these efforts is to ensure the sustainability of the supply chains that support our daily life. Sustainable supply chains are more complex than traditional supply chains, and they involve a combination of multiple issues. Multiple plans must be used to deal with these issues. However, these plans often conflict with each other. To manage a sustainable supply chain, an integrated approach is needed to operate multiple plans for multiple issues. This paper introduces a research concept for integrated sustainable supply chain management using a multi-agent system. An agent executing a plan for an issue autonomously negotiates with other agents and avoids conflicts. Linear physical programming used for negotiation balances agents’ utility and ensures that all plans function well. Through this research, we provide an example of the simultaneous operation of multiple plans in a sustainable supply chain, aiming at the social implementation of sustainable supply chains.