Supply Chain Agent Decision Aid System (SCADAS)

Supply chain decisions are improved with access to global information. However, supply chain partners are frequently hesitant to provide full access to all the information within an enterprise. A mechanism to make decisions based on global information without complete access to that information is required for improved supply chain decision making. Mobile agents can support this requirement and these are the programs that can be initiated on a single host and then migrate from host to host over a network. At each host, a process can be spawned which will provide a "black-box" view into that host's information. This provides access to necessary information, while maintaining privacy for company sensitive information. This paper will discuss mobile agents and how they are useful in designing and managing the supply chain. The Supply Chain Agent Decision Aid System (SCADAS) is presented as tool to provide the flexibility of mobile agents while protecting company sensitive information.