| The SCM’2002 conference on Production Systems Design, Supply Chain
Management and Logistics, Miedzyzdroje, Poland, 2002-10-23/25, was held
as part of the 9th Intern. Multi-Conference on Advanced Computer Systems
(ACS’2002). The conference was organised jointly by the Techn. University
of Szczecin, Poland and the University of Technologies of Troyes, France.
About 150 people attended the conference. The proceedings contain a
total of 68 papers covering a wide range of topics relevant to the subject
of the conference. Authors are mostly from Europe with a large representation
from Eastern Europe countries. Papers are organised in 12 sessions including
a plenary – held jointly with ACS - and a poster session.
The plenary session with 4 papers from both conferences demonstrated
the wide range of topics covered: Fuzzy expert system for the description
of the middle east destabilisation (Facchinetti), Production control policies
in multi-stage supply chains (Hennet), Initiative for international consensus
in enterprise integration (Kosanke), and Algorithm for coalition avoidance
at sea (Smierzchalski).
The following sessions covered two major themes: Production systems
and Enterprise systems.
The 7 Sessions on production systems: Computer-aided design, Flexible
manufacturing systems, Supply and inventory management, Production planning
and scheduling, Facility location, transportation and logistics, Optimisation
via simulation, and Optimisation in product and process design. Enterprise
system sessions were: Enterprise management, Extended enterprise, and Intelligent
agent technologies. The following short descriptions refer to papers from
the enterprise systems area.
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The human aspects in BPR were addressed by Worley et al. A modelling framework
was presented aimed at supporting process modelling and centred on the
concepts of skills, role and knowledge. The authors identify four classes
of roles (interpersonal, informational, decisional and operational), five
skill categories (technical, organisational, analytical and decisional,
interpretational and formalisational, and human or motivational), and two
distinctions in the knowledge domain (data, information, knowledge and
unstructured, and structured knowledge).
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Millet and Botta-Genoulaz, presented ERP implementation as a new research
topic. Starting from the high failure rate of ERP implementations, the
authors argue the need for project methodologies, performance evaluation
and enterprise modelling. Reference models would improve the project requirement
analysis and would in turn lead to integratable module type software replacing
today’s monolithic packages.
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The EU PROMINENCE project (Boer et al) is aimed at European SME based extended
enterprises. The project will develop methods and tools to support such
enterprises and increase their effectivity and profitability. First project
results were presented.
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Performance measurements for the supply chain was addressed by Neubert
and Pichot. The work is aimed on defining a methodology to choose indicators
from world-wide standards (CEN TC 273, SCOR Model) and is based on the
balanced scorecard methodology. The SCOR model identifies 200 supply chain
performance indicators structured into five categories: reliability, responsiveness,
flexibility, cost, and asset management. CEN proposes 100 performance indicators
classified according to the different supply chain activities: sales and
customer service, supply and supplier service, product, production, warehousing,
transport, inventory control, and varied measure. A supply chain dashboard
is defined that classifies the indicators in 4 categories: customer, finance,
internal process, learning and growth.
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The paper on ontology-based knowledge repository organisation for supply
chain management (Smirnov et al) described a knowledge source network (KSNet)
configuration approach using ontology management, intelligent agents, constraint
satisfaction, soft computing and groupware. The paper focussed on the knowledge
repository, which has a three-level structure: semantic description (ontology
library), service (knowledge map and user profile) and physical (Internal
knowledge base). See also Sandkuhl below.
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Sandkuhl et al, focused on knowledge logistics in agile SME networks based
on competence models as knowledge sources and knowledge supply networks
(KSNet – see also above) as infrastructure for knowledge logistics. The
paper introduces organisational and technological aspects – including university
– SME cooperation, semantic nets and multi-agent frameworks. In a third
paper on the KSNet (Smirnov et al), a conceptual multi-agent architecture
is presented together with a negotiation protocol for knowledge logistics
in distributed intelligent enterprises. In addition the paper talks in
detail about an agent knowledge representation model.
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A concept for a multi-agent system for graphic-like environment management
was described by Cetnarowicz and Kisiel-Dorohinicki. The concept may be
applied in two ways: optimisation of the system operation and optimisation
of its functionality. Simulation experiments verify the applicability of
the concept for the two domains chosen: the computer network management
and the flexible manufacturing system management.
Conference proceedings have been printed by Informa Wydzial Informatyki
Politechniki Szsczecinskiej, Szczecin, 2002, ISBN 83-87362-46-8
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