Contents

• List of Figures
• List of Tables
• Introduction
  • Motivation
  • The Context of the Thesis
  • The Thesis Objective
  • Priorities and Structure of the Thesis
  • Boundaries of the Work
• Supply Chain Management
  • Introduction
  • Definition
  • Issues in Supply Chain Management
    • Decisions on Three Levels
    • Metrics and Data Collection
    • Flexibility, Inventories, and Customer Service
      • Inventory is a ``Flexibility Buffer''
      • Inventory vs. Customer Service: A Trade-Off
    • Pitfalls in Inventory Management
    • Globalization
  • Improving Supply Chain Management
    • Integration and Coordination
      • Definitions
      • General and Multi-Plant Coordination
      • Information Technology: An Unrealized Potential?
    • Modeling and Simulation
  • Summary
• Intelligent Agents
  • Introduction
  • What is an agent?
  • Agent Theory
  • Agent Architecture
  • Agent Language
  • Applications
    • General Applications
    • Industrial Applications
  • Agents in Supply Chain Management: A Motivation
    • Supporting Systems Design and Redesign
    • Coordinating and Integrating
  • Summary
• COOrdination Language
  • Introduction
  • COOL Objects
    • Agents
      • An Agent's Attributes
      • Message Passing
    • Conversation Classes
    • Conversation Rules
    • Continuation Rules
    • The Conversation Manager
    • Associations
  • A Graphical User Interface
  • Summary
• The Simple Model
  • Introduction and Objectives
  • Overview of the Model
    • The Enterprise and Product
    • The Assembly Plant and Inventories
    • Time and Material Flow
    • Processes
  • Designing a Multi-Agent System
    • The COOL Agents
    • Conversation Classes
  • Simulation and Statistics
    • Time as the Sequence of Processes
    • Parameters
    • Statistical Data
  • Results
    • Introduction
    • A Data Presentation Tool
    • Varying A/F
    • Varying K
    • Varying L
    • Varying Y
    • Varying lt
  • Conclusions
• The PMC Model
  • Introduction and Objectives
  • Overview of the Model
    • The Enterprise and Products
    • The Assembly Plants and Inventories
    • Distribution Centers / Markets
    • External Suppliers, Prices, and Lead Times
    • Transportation Entities
    • Customers and Customer Orders
    • Processes
  • Designing a Multi-Agent System
    • Introduction
    • Agents
    • Detailed Description of the Processes
  • Simulations and Results
    • Verifying the Model
      • Customer Satisfaction
      • Inventory Levels
    • Handling Machine Breakdown
      • Focussing on RPI levels
      • Breakdown of MB-A1
      • Breakdown of CBOX-A
      • Breakdown of SYS-Testing
    • Uncoordinated Planning
    • Quoting Delivery Times
  • Conclusions
• Final Remarks
  • Summary and Conclusions
    • The Theoretical Background
    • The Practical Work
    • Meeting the Objective
  • Suggestions for Further Research
    • Extend the Model
    • User Interface
    • Supply Chain Agent Library
• Acknowledgments
• References
• Supply Chain Terminology
• COOL
  • Syntax
    • Agents
    • Conversation Managers
    • Conversation Classes
    • Conversation Rules
  • COOL GUI Screendumps
• The Supply Chain Demonstrator
  • Agents in the Supply Chain Demonstrator
    • The Customer Agent
    • The Logistics Agent
    • The Transportation Agents
    • The Plant Agents
  • Conversation Classes and Rules in the Supply Chain Demonstrator
    • customer-conversation-class
    • logistics-execution-net-class
    • form-large-team-class
    • answer-form-large-team-class
    • form-small-team-class
    • answer-form-small-team-class
    • kick-off-execution-class and answer-kick-off-execution-class
    • monitor-execution-class
    • find-contractor-class
  • Tracing Messages
  • Information Flow
• Source Code
• About this document ...