Managing the Supply Chain An AI Perspective Mark
- Slides: 38
Managing the Supply Chain An AI Perspective Mark S. Fox Mihai Barbuceanu, Chris Beck, Andrew Davenport, Mike Gruninger Enterprise Integration Laboratory University of Toronto 4 Taddle Creek Road, Toronto, Ontario M 5 S 3 G 8 tel: 1 -416 -978 -6823 fax: 1 -416 -971 -2479 internet: msf@ie. utoronto. ca http: //www. ie. utoronto. ca/EIL/
The Internet Effect • The Internet has precipitated a major change in how we view retailing and the supply chain – Purchasing is becoming tightly integrated with fulfillment – Customers expect instantaneous response • Produce the product • Tell me when it will be produced • Tell me why it cannot be produced 2
Supply Chain Requirements • The complexity of an enterprise, coupled with uncertainty in the performance of activities, plus the natural distribution of the organization, requires an information architecture where functions are distributed across a networked environment. And are: • Available Flexible – Aware - Informed - - Responsive - Smart 3
Problem • Earlier ERP systems made the transition from static, batch oriented systems, to be more dynamic by incorporating messaging • Never the less, these systems are still largely static – Most modules run on a batch basis or static sequence – Dynamic responses usually left to the human decision maker • We need to re-think how we manage the dynamics of the supply chain – Information technology is making it possible to manage the supply chain in ways not possible ten years ago. 4
Supply Chain Architecture • A network of intelligent software modules that together dynamically manage the supply chain. Each module – is an expert at its task, thereby optimizing its goals – coordinates its decisions with other modules, thereby optimizing supply chain wide goals – quickly responds to changes in cooperation with other modules 5
Information Technology Enablers • Four technologies are having a significant impact on the achievement of this vision: – – The Internet/Web Intelligent Agents Constraint Directed Reasoning Enterprise Models/Ontologies 6
Intelligent Agents • More and more of the tactical and operational decisions will have to be made by software systems that operate more autonomously than they do today. • But, these systems will have to be endowed with operating characteristics a generation beyond what is available today. – We have to strike FIIR into our systems: Fast, Informed, Intelligent Response. • We call this software "intelligent agents” 7
Supply Chain Management Agents Enterprise Wide Per Facility 8
Agent Characteristics • Dynamic: Each agent performs its functions asynchronously in response to events as they occur, modifying its behavior as required. • Goal Directed: can dynamically construct plans in response to events and adapt its plans to new situations. • Intelligent: Each agent is an “expert” in its function. • Least Commitment: The precision with which decisions are made should be inversely proportional to the degree of uncertainty. • Cooperative: Can cooperate with other agents in finding a solution. • Interactive: May work with people to solve a problem - Intelligent Assistants. It can respond to queries and explains its decisions. • Entrusted: Aware of their rights and obligations and therefore trusted. 9
Collaboration • Cultural Assumption: To enable agents to collaborate, we must make assumptions about how their decisions can be influenced, we call this the "cultural assumption” Customer • Agents influence each others behavior by communicating: Goals: Order Acquisition to Assembly Plant: Market Functional Agent "Commit 100 yellow widgets on July 14 to mfg order 49825. " Constraints: on how goals are to be achieved Management Operations "Maximum price for the 100 widgets is $3/widget. " 10
Agent Architecture Coordination Communication Information Distribution Conversation Obligation Management Knowledge Management Constraint-Based Reasoning 11
Coordination Services • An organization is a set of agents playing roles constrained by mutual obligations, permissions, interdictions (OPI). • Obligations triggered by communications in specified situations, create goals in the obliged party. – Incurs costs if not satisfied. – Contradictory obligations exist. • An agent's behavior is determined by plans assigned to its role constrained by obligations, permissions, interdictions and the local situation. 12
Coordination Plans • Agents may carry on multiple, multiple conversations with other agents. The framework includes: – – – conversation objects (both generic classes and instances), conversation rules, conversation continuation rules, error recovery rules, and multiple conversation management. • Coordination plans include both communication with other agents, and invocation of local problem solving methods. 13
Supply Chain Example 14
Benefits • A vision of how information systems will be structured in the future. – Architecture clearly identifies the differing roles of function, information and user access – Agents may dynamically respond to change, coordinating their responses with other agents – Information is distributed to function agents automatically – Information agents manage the evolution of information – Users may tap into other agents, to browse, visualize and change information, limited by their authority 15
Agent Problem Solving Reqts Every functional agent must be able to: • reason about constraints and optimize a set of goals • maximize enterprise flexibility by making "least commitment" decisions, i. e. , maintaining alternatives as long as possible • reveal its goals and constraints when necessary • modify/relax its goals and constraints as part of the negotiation process 16
Constraint-Directed Reasoning • In the last 15 years, a new problem solving paradigm has emerged: Constraint-Directed Reasoning • It is able to consider the myriad of constraints that exist in the organization and construct plans/schedules that satisfy constraints and optimize goals. • It is able to revise these solutions in real-time as changes occur in the market and organization. • It is able to consider tradeoffs among goals/constraints an relax constraints when necessary. 17
Key Concept • Identify the constraint that dominates - and deal with it! 18
Constraint Graph • An integrated representation of all of the variables, e. g. , activity start times, resource assignments, etc. , and their constraints. ST ET Task 1 Task 2 No Weekends Perturbation R 1, R 2 Due Date Utility = Precedence Constraint = Resource Constraint Solution: An assignment of values to every variable such that all constraints are satisfied. 19
How it Works Partial Successive Refinement Schedule Complete Schedule • Remove alternatives that do not satisfy the constraints (Constraint Propagation) • Determine what makes the problem difficult (Measure Textures) • Identify the most critical constraint and make a decision (Opportunistic Commitment) • Backtrack if dead end found (Retraction) 20
Step 1: Constraint Propagation • The domain of a variable may be reduced depending on its linkage to another variable via a constraint Activity 1 Before Activity 2 End Time 1 Start Time 2 21
Step 2: Select Decision Point • Measure Problem Textures: constraint graph properties (e. g. , Contention, Reliance) • Identify Critical Constraint (Opportunism) Task 1 Task 2 22
Step 3: Commitment Least commitment decision maintains as many alternatives as long as possible. • Assign/remove resource • Assign/remove start time • Sequence two or more activities • Retract prior commitment Task 1 Constraint Posting Task 2 23
Least Commitment Decisions • Degree of commitment may vary with domain uncertainty • Allows for flexible local response to change Activity 1 Latest Finish Time Earliest Start Time R 1 R 2 R 3 24
Benefits • Able to consider the myriad of constraints that exist in real domains • Able to relax constraints when no feasible solution exists • Able to negotiate constraints with other agents • Iterative improvement • Anytime performance 25
Information Challenge • Successful management of the supply chain, whether human or agent-based, requires an operating model of the enterprise that is: – Understood and shared by all participants – Able to answer the questions necessary to operate the enterprise, and – As complete, correct and up-to-date as needed. 26
Barrier • The piecemeal development of information systems has led to systems, that are interconnected, but cannot communicate because they do not share the same data models. • ERP products have begun to address this problem, but only within a corporation. 27
Barrier • Much of what we want to know is not represented explicitly in a database, but can be derived from it. • SQL helps but does not solve the problem, especially if answers have to be deduced from the data • Cost of writing programs to derive answers to users' questions is very high. 28
Is the Internet A Panacea? • Some believe the Internet solves this problem. – Wrong: Web standards say nothing about content standards • Some believe that XML is the solution – Possibly, but most likely a Pandora’s Box unless standards are quickly enforced! • What should be standardized? 29
Enterprise Model • An Enterprise Model is a representation, both definition and description, of the structure, processes, resource and information of an identifiable business, government, or other organizational system. • The goal of an enterprise model is to achieve modeldriven enterprise design and operation. 30
Enterprise Modeling Goals • To provide an object library that is a shareable, reusable representation of supply chain information and knowledge. • To define the objects in a precise manner so that it is consistently applied across domains and interpreted by users • To support supply chain tasks by enabling the answering of questions that are not explicitly represented in the model • To support model visualization that is both intuitive, simple and consistent 31
Solution: Ontology • An Ontology is a formal description of entities, their properties and relations among entities. • An ontology is a set of key distinctions necessary to support reasoning. • It is generic across domains. 32
Spoilage Axiom Successor axiom for the fluent spoiled: ( a, r, s) holds(spoiled(r), do(a, )) ((¬holds(spoiled(r), ) � a=spoilage(r)) holds(spoiled(r), )) Precondition axiom: quantity(s, r, q) � enables(s, a) (Poss(a, ) ¬holds(spoiled(r), )) 33
Example Ontologies 34
Example • Given – Crates, pallets, and warehouses of resources • We should be able to answer questions like – How many crates of apples do we have in Warehouse 1? How many overall? – How many pallets contain these crates? – How many apples per crate? How many per pallet? How many per resource unit? – Where do we have at least 10 boxes of bolts? 35
Example • Given – SKUs with code age and spoilage limits – Stock levels and min safety levels of SKUs • We should be able to answer questions like – Will shiptment 10 of oranges spoil if they are not shipped before Friday? – Is any milk spoiled by Wednesday? – Is there any time at which the stock level for bolts at the Scarborough factory reaches the minimum safety level? 36
Benefits • A shareable, reusable representation – Minimally, a language for communicating among legacy agents • A deductive database able to deduce anwers to common sense questions – Reduces the need for ad hoc report generators and interfaces • A standard for visualizing enterprise knowledge – A visual standard across enterprises 37
Conclusion • Most supply chain systems are based on technologies developed in the 60 s and 70 s • Technological changes in the 80 s and 90 s enable us to create the next generation of supply chain management systems – – Internet/Web Agency Theory Constraint-directed reasoning Enterprise Modeling/Ontologies 38
- Managing economies of scale in a supply chain
- Managing economies of scale in a supply chain
- Role of safety inventory in supply chain
- Managing economies of scale in a supply chain
- Matching supply and demand in supply chain
- Difference between logistics and supply chain
- Eltonian pyramid
- Managing supply chains a logistics approach
- Managing supply chains: a logistics approach
- Managing supply chains a logistics approach
- Managing supply chains a logistics approach
- Two point perspective house
- Silo perspective vs business process perspective
- Chapter 5 section 1 supply and the law of supply
- Elastisidad ng supply
- Whirlpool corporation evolution of a supply chain
- Werken met supply chain management
- Viewpoint for project collaboration
- Contemporary management practices
- Ibm supply chain risk management
- Pipeline in supply chain
- Operational obstacles in supply chain
- Supply chain silos
- Supply chain risk register
- Supply chain risk management framework
- Supply chain risk management framework
- Cisco supply chain risk management
- Supply chain risk leadership council
- Safety stock formula
- 4 flows of supply chain
- Chain sequence
- Supply chain it framework
- Drivers of supply chain management
- Netflix supply chain
- Collaborative supply chain
- Replenishment cycle in supply chain
- Pipeline in supply chain
- Supply chain management explanation
- Supply chain upstream and downstream