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Supplier Utilization
through Responsive Grouped Enterprises (SURGE) |
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We have developed a multi-agent
system that is capable of grouping parts that will be produced by a
general set of part manufacturers, rather than in a single manufacturing
environment. We have defined agents that represent the characteristics of
each spare part. These agents interact in three distinct ways: 1) the
agents cluster themselves based on part attributes, i.e., similar
materials or demand rates. This provides the ability to filter the part
information based on attributes from a collection of parts, i.e., the
processes that are used to produce the parts. This clustering can be done
strictly based on the manufacturing process or on a broader set of
characteristics, such as part cost, and processing sequence. 2) the agents
to cluster themselves based on their represented manufacturing process,
and 3) the agents cluster themselves based on a specific vendor
capability. This provides for vendor specific input into the grouping
process. Currently this is a manual interaction with the agent, however,
we envision agents at a wide variety of manufacturers negotiating part
placements within groups |
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