The business value of agent-based supply chain coordination

Multi-agent systems have the potential of supporting the coordination in supply chains. The adoption of such systems has been limited, as their design often neglects existing organizational realities and the value for the various stakeholders is not clear. The aim of this paper is to design a MAS improving coordination and to identify which factors contribute to its business value. We designed a semi-cooperative coordination model and evaluated the benefits using action research. We found that multi-agent system increases the level of flexibility in the chain and enables members of the supply chain to be more responsiveness. This has a positive impact on the ordering lead-time, the inventory levels and number of stock-outs.