Agent-based simulations for advanced supply chain planning and scheduling : the FAMASS methodological framework for requirements analysis

Agent-based systems have been employed in the Supply Chain Management field since the 1990s. In spite of its appealing and extensive use in both research and practice, the agent technology and its integration with advanced supply chain planning and scheduling tools still represent an emergent field with many open research questions. Particularly, the literature fails to provide an integrated framework to identify, model and conduct simulation experiments covering the whole simulation cycle. Indeed, the initial modelling effort performed at the analysis phase is especially neglected by the literature concerned. This early phase is critical because it considerably influences the whole development process as well as the resulting simulation experiments. Thus, this article presents a novel methodological framework called FAMASS (FORAC Architecture for Modelling Agent-based Simulation for Supply chain planning), which provides: (i) a uniform representation of distributed advanced supply chain planning and scheduling systems using agent technology; and (ii) a methodological approach supporting analysts in defining functional requirements of possible simulation experiments. The proposed methodological framework was tested through a real-scale proof-of-concept case employing data from two industrial partners