Using Business Process Specifications and Agents to Integrate a Scenario-Driven Supply Chain

Published

December 1, 2002

Author(s)

H Jeong, Hyunbo Cho, Albert W. Jones, Boonserm Kulvatunyou

Abstract

In today's increasingly competitive global market, most enterprises place high priority on reducing order-fulfillment costs, minimizing time-to-market, and maximizing product quality. The desire of businesses to achieve these goals has seen a shift from a make-to-stock paradigm to a make-to-order paradigm. The success of this new paradigm requires robust and efficient supply chain integration and the ability to operate in the business-to-business (B2B) environment. Recent internet-based approaches have enabled instantaneous and secure information sharing among trading partners (i.e., customers, manufacturers, and suppliers). In this paper, we present a framework that enables both integration and B2B operations. This framework uses pre-defined business process specifications (BPS) and agent technologies. The BPS, which specifies a message choreography among the trading partners, is modeled using a modified Unified Modeling Language (UML). The behavior of the enterprise applications within each trading partner -- how they respond to external events specified in the BPS -- is modeled using Petri-nets and implemented as a collection of agents. The concepts and models proposed in this paper should provide the starting point for the formulation of a structured approach to B2B supply chain integration and implementation.

Citation

International Journal of Computer Integrated Manufacturing

Pub Type

Journals

Download Paper

Local Download

Keywords

Agent, Business process specification, Petri net, Supply chain integration, Supply chain planning, Testbed-BPM

Citation

Jeong, H. , Cho, H. , Jones, A. and Kulvatunyou, B. (2002), Using Business Process Specifications and Agents to Integrate a Scenario-Driven Supply Chain, International Journal of Computer Integrated Manufacturing, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=821837 (Accessed October 24, 2025)