@Article{swaminathan07a,
  author =	 {Jayashankar M. Swaminathan and Stephen F. Smith and
                  Norman M. Sadeh},
  title =	 {Modeling Supply Chain Dynamics: A Multiagent
                  Approach},
  journal =	 {Decision Sciences},
  year =	 2007,
  volume =	 29,
  number =	 3,
  pages =	 {607--632},
  abstract =	 {A global economy and increase in customer
                  expectations in terms of cost and services have put
                  a premium on effective supply chain
                  reengineering. It is essential to perform
                  risk-benefit analysis of reengineering alternatives
                  before making a final decision. Simulation provides
                  an effective pragmatic approach to detailed analysis
                  and evaluation of supply chain design and management
                  alternatives. However, the utility of this
                  methodology is hampered by the time and effort
                  required to develop models with sufficient fidelity
                  to the actual supply chain of interest. In this
                  paper, we describe a supply chain modeling framework
                  designed to overcome this difficulty. Using our
                  approach, supply chain models are composed from
                  software components that represent types of supply
                  chain agents (e.g., retailers, manufacturers,
                  transporters), their constituent control elements
                  (e.g., inventory policy), and their interaction
                  protocols (e.g., message types). The underlying
                  library of supply chain modeling components has been
                  derived from analysis of several different supply
                  chains. It provides a reusable base of
                  domain-specific primitives that enables rapid
                  development of customized decision support tools.},
  doi =		 {10.1111/j.1540-5915.1998.tb01356.x}
}