CONVERSATIONAL AGENTS FOR DECENTRALIZED B2B ORCHESTRATION IN MANUFACTURING SCM
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.65009/fvx61n40Abstract
Manufacturing supply chains demand coordination across autonomous partners while
preserving local systems and policies; this paper presents a decentralized, agent-driven pipeline that
transforms standard B2B interactions into executable con- versation policies for automation at scale. The
approach in- gests UML sequence models and industry documents, derives conversation structure via
relational constraints on message roles, and synthesizes role-specific state machines that enact procurement,
logistics, and billing exchanges across firms. A prototype aligns with common standards, generates Dooley
style collaboration views, and augments agent behaviors with exception patterns (timeouts, partial
commitments, late deliveries) to sustain continuity under operational variability. Case-based evaluation in
an automotive-style scenario indicates feasibility for interoperable automation without centralized
marketplaces, highlighting pathways for standards convergence and robust exception-aware execution in
distributed SCM.
References
C. S. Durugbo, “Collaborative supply-chain systems: An overview and future directions,” Computers in
Industry, vol. 63, no. 7, pp. 625–635, 2012.
C. Bussler, “The role of b2b integration in supply chain management,”
IEEE Internet Computing, vol. 8, no. 4, pp. 70–76, 2004.
M. Luck, P. McBurney, and C. Preist, “Agent technology: Enabling next generation computing,”
AgentLink Report, Tech. Rep., 2003.
J. L. Zhao, H. T. Ho, and S. C. Sethi, “Supply chain coordination with agent-based technologies,”
Decision Support Systems, vol. 46, no. 2, pp. 620–626, 2009.
A. Dogac, Y. Kabak, and G. Laleci, “Enriching ebxml registries with ontology-based semantics,”
Distributed and Parallel Databases, vol. 20, no. 3, pp. 225–248, 2006.
J. F. Allen, “Maintaining knowledge about temporal intervals,” Communications of the ACM, vol. 26, no.
, pp. 832–843, 1983.
F. Casati, S. Ilnicki, L. Jin, V. Krishnamoorthy, and M.-C. Shan, “Adaptive and dynamic service
composition in eflow,” in International Conference on Advanced Information Systems Engineering.
Springer, 2000, pp. 13–31.
H. Garcia-Molina, M. J. Franklin, and D. Agrawal, “Coordinating trans- action management in
distributed systems,” ACM Computing Surveys, vol. 23, no. 3, pp. 227–268, 1991.
T. Berners-Lee, J. Hendler, and O. Lassila, “The semantic web,” Scien- tific American, vol. 284, no. 5,
pp. 34–43, 2001.
J. L. Austin, How to Do Things with Words. Oxford University Press, 1962.
M. Wooldridge, An Introduction to MultiAgent Systems. John Wiley & Sons, 2009.
M. Hepp, “Ontology for the semantic web: Recent advances and future directions,” in Handbook on
Ontologies. Springer, 2009, pp. 445–475.
M. P. Papazoglou and W.-J. van den Heuvel, “Service-oriented design and development methodology,”
International Journal of Web Engineer- ing and Technology, vol. 2, no. 4, pp. 412–442, 2006.
A. Tolk and J. A. Muguira, “The levels of conceptual interoperability model (lcim),” in Proc. IEEE Fall
Simulation Interoperability Workshop, 2003, pp. 1–10.
A. Sheth, C. Ramakrishnan, and C. Thomas, “Semantics for the semantic web: The implicit, the formal
and the powerful,” International Journal on Semantic Web and Information Systems, vol. 1, no. 1, pp.
–18, 2005.
D. C. Schmidt, “Model-driven engineering,” IEEE Computer, vol. 39, no. 2, pp. 25–31, 2006.
R. T. Fielding and R. N. Taylor, “Principled design of the modern web architecture,” ACM Transactions
on Internet Technology, vol. 2, no. 2,
pp. 115–150, 2002.
T. Berners-Lee, J. Hendler, and O. Lassila, “The semantic web,” Scien- tific American, vol. 284, no. 5,
pp. 34–43, 2001.