Scalable Enterprise Systems: Supply Chain Optimization and Protocol Environment (Scope) - A Modeling Environment for Extended Enterprises

本研究解决了在这一领域的决策支持工具的需求，通过开发一个供应链优化和协议环境（SCOPE），它模拟了供应链的行为，涉及多个独立的，寻求目标的实体随着时间的推移。 实体将由优化模型表示，这些模型捕获关键决策变量和技术约束，同时保留足够的特殊结构以实现有效的解决方案。 实体之间的交互将通过协议来描述，协议规定了实体之间传递的货物、金钱和信息，实体做出决策的顺序，每个实体如何处理信息以做出决策，以及实体如何应对不可预见的事件。 该方法结合了计算的易处理性和可扩展性的能力，随着时间的推移，探索不同的供应链配置的行为。 它还将使研究人员能够代表供应链中实体之间的一系列不同的互动模式。成功开发SCOPE这样的工具将允许供应链设计的快速原型化，而研究人员将有一个测试平台来评估理论推导的结果如何推广到不同的操作模式，这些操作模式会使一些原始假设变得紧张，以及尝试各种形式的供应链合作，这些合作形式过于复杂，无法用分析的方法来处理。

This research addresses the need for decision support tools in this area by developing a Supply Chain Optimization and Protocol Environment (SCOPE) which emulates the behavior of supply chains involving multiple, independent, goal-seeking entities over time. Entities will be represented by optimization models that capture the key decision variables and technological constraints, while retaining enough special structure to allow efficient solution. Interactions among entities will be described through protocols that specify what goods, money and information pass among entities, in what order entities make decisions, how information isprocessed by each entity to make its decisions, and how entities respond to unforeseen events. The approach combines computational tractability and scalability with the ability to explore the behavior of different supply chain configurations over time. It will also allows the researchers to represent a range of different modes of interaction among entities in the supply chain.Successful development of a tool like SCOPE would permit rapid prototyping of supply chain designs, while researchers would have a test bed for assessing how well theoretically-derived results generalize to different modes of operation that strain some of the original assumptions, and for experimenting with forms of supply chain collaboration too complex for treatment analytically.