An agent-based fuzzy constraint-directed negotiation model for solving supply chain planning and scheduling problems

To accommodate the perspectives and interests of each enterprise in a supply chain, conflicts among FCSPs are resolved using the AFCN protocol through the iterative exchange of offers/counter-offers with limited information sharing and without privacy breaches. A proposed offer/counter-offer represents not only a set of acceptable solutions and preferences for an operational task but also the possibility of conflict in this area.

For each FCSP,the incremental process of offer/counter-offer evaluation eliminates redundant and infeasible solutions. The sharing of limited non-strategic sensitive information among agents enables them to elucidate their opponents’ intentions through iterative negotiations, such that the agents can reach an agreement while ensuring that the solution to a project planning and scheduling problem is satisfactory. The AFCN model is also sufficiently flexible to incorporate different negotiation strategies such as competitive, winwin, and collaborative strategies, for various production environments.

Herein, a numerical study was conducted to examine the practical viability and effectiveness of the proposed AFCN model. The experimental results show that the proposed AFCN model not only can generate a schedule that is comparable to a near-optimal solution but also is time-efficient. This indicates that the proposed AFCN is a practical and effective method for solving supply chain planning and scheduling problems in fully distributed environments.