Intelligent Selection of Distributor by Manufacturer in Supply Chain Management using Multi Agents

Supply chain management (SCM) consists of various components such as: supplier, manufacturer, factories, warehouses, distributions agents etc. These components are involved in various activities such as: supplying raw materials, manufacturing and distribution of the finished product to the final customer. The selection of right distributor is very important activity in SCM. This paper focuses on the Multi Agent technique for the selection of suitable distributor for the manufacturer. Different manufacturers have different preferences on the attributes like payment delay, market coverage, technical ability etc. The supply chain consists of an intelligent Broker agent which selects the best distributor according to the requirement of the manufacturer. The multi agent system offers a flexible solution for the selection as well as negotiation. The agents are implemented through the Jade environment.