Title: Alleviating the bullwhip effect in supply chain management using the multi-agent approach: an empirical study

Authors: Qing Cao, Karyl B. Leggio

Addresses: Henry W. Bloch School of Business Administration, University of Missouri-Kansas City, 5110 Cherry Street, Kansas City, MO 64110, USA. ' Henry W. Bloch School of Business Administration, University of Missouri-Kansas City, 5110 Cherry Street, Kansas City, MO 64110, USA

Abstract: Supply chain management critically affects businesses| abilities to obtain and sustain competitive advantages. This paper presents a systematic approach to tackle the issue of the bullwhip effect in supply chain management. First, we proposed a multi-agent supply chain framework and compare it with the traditional sequential supply chain framework. Secondly, we hypothesise that the multi-agent supply chain framework would be more effective in alleviating the bullwhip effect than the sequential supply chain framework. Finally, we describe a case study that was conducted to test the proposed hypothesis. The findings suggested the multi-agent supply chain framework outperformed the sequential supply chain in alleviating the bullwhip effect. Supply chain management critically affects businesses| abilities to obtain and sustain competitive advantages. This paper presents a systematic approach to tackle the issue of the bullwhip effect in supply chain management. First, we proposed a multi-agent supply chain framework and compare it with the traditional sequential supply chain framework. Secondly, we hypothesise that the multi-agent supply chain framework would be more effective in alleviating the bullwhip effect than the sequential supply chain framework. Finally, we describe a case study that was conducted to test the proposed hypothesis. The findings suggested the multi-agent supply chain framework outperformed the sequential supply chain in alleviating the bullwhip effect.

Keywords: bullwhip effect; supply chain management; SCM; multi-agent systems; MAS; agent-based systems; genetic algorithms; GAs.

DOI: 10.1504/IJCAT.2008.018159

International Journal of Computer Applications in Technology, 2008 Vol.31 No.3/4, pp.225 - 237

Published online: 05 May 2008 *

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