TY - JOUR
T1 - Intelligent sustainable supplier selection using multi-agent technology
T2 - Theory and application for Industry 4.0 supply chains
AU - Ghadimi, Pezhman
AU - Wang, Chao
AU - Lim, Ming K.
AU - Heavey, Cathal
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 Elsevier Ltd
PY - 2019/1
Y1 - 2019/1
N2 - Advancements in information and communication systems offer immense opportunities for supply chain intelligence and autonomy establishing stepping stones for Industry 4.0 supply chains (SCs). As a crucial SC decision, sustainable supplier evaluation and selection process have been addressed abundantly in the previous literature. However, this process has not yet been realized within Industry 4.0 SCs where interconnection, real-time information transparency, technical assistance and decentralization of members of a physical system (i.e., supply chain members) are regarded as the main design principles. To narrow the identified gap, a Multi-Agent Systems (MASs) approach is proposed for addressing sustainable supplier evaluation and selection process to provide a proper communication channel, structured information exchange and visibility among suppliers and manufacturers. Furthermore, the application of MASs in this process and their natural applicability as one of the enabling technologies in moving towards Industry 4.0 SCs are investigated in detail. It is found that the proposed approach can help decision-makers inside manufacturing firms to make prompt decisions with less human interactions. The merit of the developed MAS is demonstrated through a real-world implementation on a medical device manufacturer. Finally, the limitations and advantages of the proposed approach are presented together with some remarks for future work.
AB - Advancements in information and communication systems offer immense opportunities for supply chain intelligence and autonomy establishing stepping stones for Industry 4.0 supply chains (SCs). As a crucial SC decision, sustainable supplier evaluation and selection process have been addressed abundantly in the previous literature. However, this process has not yet been realized within Industry 4.0 SCs where interconnection, real-time information transparency, technical assistance and decentralization of members of a physical system (i.e., supply chain members) are regarded as the main design principles. To narrow the identified gap, a Multi-Agent Systems (MASs) approach is proposed for addressing sustainable supplier evaluation and selection process to provide a proper communication channel, structured information exchange and visibility among suppliers and manufacturers. Furthermore, the application of MASs in this process and their natural applicability as one of the enabling technologies in moving towards Industry 4.0 SCs are investigated in detail. It is found that the proposed approach can help decision-makers inside manufacturing firms to make prompt decisions with less human interactions. The merit of the developed MAS is demonstrated through a real-world implementation on a medical device manufacturer. Finally, the limitations and advantages of the proposed approach are presented together with some remarks for future work.
KW - Cyber-physical systems
KW - Industry 4.0
KW - Industry 4.0 supply chain
KW - Multi-agent systems
KW - Sustainable supplier selection
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85056227662&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.cie.2018.10.050
DO - 10.1016/j.cie.2018.10.050
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85056227662
SN - 0360-8352
VL - 127
SP - 588
EP - 600
JO - Computers and Industrial Engineering
JF - Computers and Industrial Engineering
ER -