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

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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 April 18, 2024)