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

这项研究通过开发一个供应链优化和协议环境(SCOPE)来解决这一领域对决策支持工具的需求，该环境模拟了涉及多个独立的、寻求目标的实体的供应链随时间的行为。实体将由捕捉关键决策变量和技术约束的优化模型来表示，同时保留足够的特殊结构以允许高效解决。实体之间的互动将通过协议来描述，这些协议规定了什么商品、金钱和信息在实体之间传递，实体以什么顺序做出决定，每个实体如何处理信息以做出决定，以及实体如何对不可预见的事件做出反应。该方法将计算处理能力和可伸缩性与探索不同供应链配置随时间变化的能力结合在一起。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交互模式。成功开发类似Scope的工具将允许对供应链设计进行快速原型设计，同时研究人员将拥有一个试验台，用于评估从理论上得出的结果在多大程度上适用于约束一些原始假设的不同操作模式，以及试验过于复杂而无法分析处理的供应链合作形式。

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.