An Agent-Based Approach for Manufacturing Enterprise Integration and Supply Chain Management

Abstract

Improving supply chain management is very important for increasingcompetitiveposition and profitability. Manufacturing enterprises are now movingtowards openarchitectures for integrating their activities with those of theirsuppliers, customersand partners within wide supply chain networks. This paper presentsan agent-based approach for manufacturing enterprise integration and supplychainmanagement to meet such requirements. A hybrid agent-based architectureisproposed, the main features of such an architecture are then described,and aprototype implementation is presented.