Performance Evaluation for Pull-Type Supply Chains Using an Agent-Based Approach

Tzu-Liang Tseng², Roger R. Gung¹, Chun-Che Huang^3*

¹Business Analytics, University of Phoenix, Phoenix, USA.
²Department of Industrial, Manufacturing and Systems Engineering, The University of Texas, Austin, USA.
³Department of Information Management, National Chi Nan University, Nantou.

DOI: 10.4236/ajibm.2013.31012                

Abstract

The business world changes rapidly and customers’ demands are more varied than before, traditional push system which takes actions based on anticipated requirements and uses forecast to determine the manufacturing quantity is no longer effective enough for modeling market volatility. Therefore, the pull strategy, which is demand oriented, flexible and generates cost savings, is becoming more popular and prominent. The pull type supply chain management is also applied broadly in the high-tech industry where the market volatility is a very unique characteristic. In SCM, nonstructured oral communications make information sharing difficult and inefficient in a distributed environment. To solve this problem, Agent Technology (AT) is applied. AT in Business Intelligence (BI) has been proven that it is good tool in solving communication problems in distributed environments. This research focuses on the application of the make-to-plan (MTP) supply chain strategy and AT based technique. A case study of simulation of the MTP-based pull type supply chain is presented. Impacts of operator parameters, e.g., manufacturing throughput, forecast accuracy, and inventory on performance of the pull type control strategies are discussed in this study.

Keywords

Supply Chain Management; Pull Type; Supply Chain Model; Make-to-Plan; Agent Technology; Simulation

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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