Order partitioning and Order Penetration Point location in hybrid Make-To-Stock/Make-To-Order production contexts

Hybrid Make-To-Stock (MTS)/Make-To-Order (MTO) is one of the product delivery strategies which have recently attracted practitioners’ and academicians’ interest to meet requirements of today competitive environment. Two important decisions involved in hybrid MTS/MTO context are order partitioning and determining Order Penetration Point (OPP) location. In this paper, a model is developed to first decide on which product is manufactured upon MTS, which one upon MTO and which one upon hybrid strategy. Then, a fuzzy analytic network process (ANP) is utilized to locate the OPP for the products which are decided to be manufactured upon hybrid strategy. Finally, a real industrial case study is reported to show applicability of the proposed model.     

Adopters and non-adopters of business-to-business electronic commerce in Singapore

Although there has been an increase in research studies of business-to-business (B2B) electronic commence (e-commerce), most studies were carried out in the United States or Europe. There are very limited studies on B2B e-commerce in the Asian context. Our effort examined Web-based B2B e-commerce initiatives in Singapore, an island of 650 km² in South–East Asia. Data were collected from 108 firms using a mail survey, which showed that 52.8% firms have adopted B2B e-commerce; of these, two-third had a formal plan and/or task force for B2B e-commerce deployment. Customer-related applications were generally more common than supplier-related applications. Problems in B2B e-commerce adoption included the difficulty of measuring benefits, fear of granting suppliers and customers access to corporate systems and insufficient time for staff to develop new skills in e-commerce. Implications of the results are discussed.     

Negotiation support systems: roots, progress and needs

Abstract. This paper identifies game theories and social behavior science as important roots for negotiation support systems (NSS) research. As these are not typically cited in the NSS literature, summary reviews of them are provided with indications of their relevance to NSS study. On the other hand, neither offers a sufficiently general-purpose formal model of negotiation that could serve as a backbone for NSS research. A survey of that research is provided, indicating that prugress to date has been somewhat eclectic and devoid of such a model. Our central contention is that a theoretical foundation for NSS study is much needed. Desirable characteristics of a suitable negotiation model are identified as guidance for future research that will aim to devise (and subsequently apply and test) such a model.     

Time-bound negotiation framework for electronic commerce agents

For efficient and informative coordination of agents especially in electronic commerce environment, a time-bound agent negotiation framework is proposed utilizing a time-based commitment scheme. By attaching commitment duration to agent messages, the traditional contract net protocol is extended to a time-bound negotiation framework (TBNF). The proposed negotiation framework has a new message type which allows for parties to agree upon the extension of a commitment duration, and a novel commitment concept in the form of negative commitment. The semantics of the messages with the commitment duration are interpreted, and then the three typical negotiation protocols are formally defined and compared — nothing-guaranteed protocol, acceptance-guaranteed protocol, and finite-time guarantee protocol — which can be incorporated into TBNF. The TBNF should provide a background for efficient and effective electronic commerce negotiation while accommodating each agent's adaptive negotiation strategy.     

egoisst: a negotiation support system for electronic business-to-business negotiations in e-commerce

Electronic negotiations can range from simple offer exchanges to complex communicative acts concerning packages of products and services. In contrast to dominant approaches aiming at automating the negotiation process (e.g. auction models), we introduce the notion of negotiation support for human negotiators conducting complex electronic negotiations. The negotiation support system egoisst for business-to-business electronic commerce is presented that is based on theories of communication and information systems and that combines communication and document management. egoisst has been successfully validated for e-negotiations in the construction industry.     

基于神经网络的Agent电子商务协商模型

提出一个在电子商务中能辅助用户网上采购的智能Agent协商模型,并对模型进行仿真实验,以验证模型的有效性。模型的构造基于BP神经网络,通过对用户的购物偏好训练学习,使Agent获得一组包含用户偏好特征的规则信息并作为协商过程中推理的依据;每次协商的结果都作为学习样本,以提高Agent对市场变化的适应能力。     

电子商务中的自动协商

描述电子商务中基于智能体的自动协商，给出基于智能体的自动协商模型和协商智能体的体系结构，描述了一组构成协商协议的通信原语。通过约束满足机制、协商策略和提议评估算法实现自动协商。并实现了一个供应链管理中买卖自动协商的原型系统。     

Supporting collaboration in business-to-business electronic marketplaces

Service offerings that support collaboration among participating firms are gaining popularity in Electronic Marketplaces (EMs). Although many papers have addressed the issue of collaboration, it has received little attention in the EM context. Collaboration is a rather broad term that means different things to different people. A detailed classification and analysis of such collaboration activities is needed to provide some clarification and a foundation for further research.In this paper, we offer a framework that classifies collaboration activities on two dimensions: the level of collaboration and the parties involved in the collaboration. The support for activities in each kind of collaboration, product level criteria that identify where such collaboration levels are most likely to appear, and challenges in supporting each type of collaboration are addressed. Product level criteria and related issues provide important managerial implications for EM operators, which are not necessarily suited to supporting all levels of collaboration.     

Efficient support for interactive scanning operations in MPEG-based video-on-demand systems

In this paper, we present an efficient approach for supporting fast-scanning (FS) operations in MPEG-based video-on-demand (VOD) systems. This approach is based on storing multiple, differently encoded versions of the same movie at the server. A normal version is used for normal playback, while several scan versions are used for FS. Each scan version supports forward and backward FS at a given speedup. The server responds to an FS request by switching from the normal version to an appropriate scan version. Scanning versions are produced by encoding a sample of the raw frames using the same GOP pattern of the normal version. When a scanning version is decoded and played back at the normal frame rate, it gives a perceptual motion speedup. By being able to control the traffic envelopes of the scan versions, our approach can be integrated into a previously proposed framework for distributing archived, MPEG-coded video streams. FS operations are supported using no or little extra network bandwidth beyond what is already allocated for normal playback. Mechanisms for controlling the traffic envelopes of the scan versions are presented. The actions taken by the server and the client's decoder in response to various types of interactive requests are described in detail. The latency incurred in implementing various interactive requests is shown to be within an acceptable range. Striping and disk-scheduling strategies for storing various versions at the server are presented. Issues related to the implementation of our approach are discussed.     

Negotiation support systems and team negotiations: The coalition formation perspective

The use of software to support negotiations has captured the attention of academics and practitioners for some three decades and the research stream of negotiation support systems (NSS) has emerged. Over the years, many NSS have been developed and used in training and research but they have been rarely deployed in organizations. Our speculation is that much existing research is confined to dyadic (i.e., one-to-one) settings which may not adequately reflect the real-world situations in which teams, rather than individuals, often engage in negotiations. To address the gap, our current research aspires to conceptualize the NSS in supporting team negotiations and to theoretically examine their impact. Coalition formation has been a prevalent organizational phenomenon that constitutes important dynamics in any negotiating team; it will be conceptualized as the mechanism through which NSS impacts upon team negotiation outcomes in our paper. Globalization has rendered cross-cultural negotiations a commonplace; at the same time, culture serves as a most salient attribute in activating coalitions. In light of the above, cultural diversity is studied as the antecedent to coalition formation and moderates the influence of NSS on the extent of coalition formation. A set of research propositions, derived from a theoretical framework, are raised and their implications discussed.     

一种基于GA的自动谈判问题解决方案

针对电子商务的自动谈判问题,文章用数学规划模型对其形式化描述。设计了一种基于遗传算法的解决方案,得到谈判的最优解。实验表明,上述方法可以对offer不断优化,最终生成使参与自动协商的Agent双赢的交易方案。     

Negotiation decision functions for autonomous agents

We present a formal model of negotiation between autonomous agents. The purpose of the negotiation is to reach an agreement about the provision of a service by one agent for another. The model defines a range of strategies and tactics that agents can employ to generate initial offers, evaluate proposals and offer counter proposals. The model is based on computationally tractable assumptions, demonstrated in the domain of business process management and empirically evaluated.     

无线局域网认证中密钥协商方案

针对无线局域网认证和密钥协商的安全性,文章介绍了椭圆曲线密码体制,对基于椭圆曲线密码体制的密钥协商协议进行研究,在EAP-TLS认证机制的基础上,提出一种无线局域网认证中基于ECC的密钥协商方案。     

多智能体系统中的协商模型

目前,对多智能体系统的应用多是以开放的、复杂的、变化的网络为平台,为了更好地与环境相匹配,同对提高智能体之间协商的效率,从全局与单个智能体两方面着手,提出了一种新的MAS全局模型,并相应地提出了全局协调Agent的三维模型以及智能体之间的协商模型。通过这一系列模型的模拟实现,证明了此协商模型是正确的与接近自然的。从理论上基本上解决了与当前流行的基于网络的各种先进的智能系统,分布式问题求解等领域的衔接,因而有一定的指导意义并具有广阔的发展前景。     

自动信任协商中一种最小信任披露策略

自动信任协商是通过逐渐请求和披露数字证书在两个陌生实体间建立相互信任的方法。当前对自动信任协商协商策略的研究,往往存在很多问题。文章提出了一种基于期望因子的自动信任协商模型,该模型采用MCD策略,通过分析各信任证书的期望因子,当可能的协商存在时,它能披露和请求最小的信任证找到一条成功的协商路径,当协商不可能成功时,尽快的发现并终止它。它能保证在协商的过程中没有不相关的信任证被披露并且不需要暴露双方的访问控制策略,同时通过实验证了明MCD策略是完备的。     

Efficient support for interactive operations in multi-resolution video servers

In this paper, we present a placement algorithm that interleaves multi-resolution video streams on a disk array and enables a video server to efficiently support playback of these streams at different resolution levels. We then combine this placement algorithm with a scalable compression technique to efficiently support interactive scan operations (i.e., fast-forward and rewind). We present an analytical model for evaluating the impact of the scan operations on the performance of disk-arr ay-based servers. Our experiments demonstrate that: (1) employing our placement algorithm substantially reduces seek and rotational latency overhead during playback, and (2) exploiting the characteristics of video streams and human perceptual tolerances enables a server to support interactive scan operations without any additional overhead.     

An object-oriented organizational model to support dynamic role-based access control in electronic commerce

Role-based access control (RBAC) provides flexibility to security management over the traditional approach of using user and group identifiers. In RBAC, access privileges are given to roles rather than to individual users. Users acquire the corresponding permissions when playing different roles. Roles can be defined simply as a label, but such an approach lacks the support to allow users to automatically change roles under different contexts; using static method also adds administrative overheads in role assignment. In electronic commerce (E-Commerce) and other cooperative computing environments, access to shared resources has to be controlled in the context of the entire business process; it is therefore necessary to model dynamic roles as a function of resource attributes and contextual information.In this paper, an object-oriented organizational model, Organization Modeling and Management (OMM), is presented as an underlying model to support dynamic role definition and role resolution in E-Commerce solution. The paper describes the OMM reference model and shows how it can be applied flexibly to capture the different classes of resources within a corporation, and to maintain the complex and dynamic roles and relationships between the resource objects. Administrative tools use the role model in OMM to define security policies for role definition and role assignment. At runtime, the E-Commerce application and the underlying resource manager queries the OMM system to resolve roles in order to authorize any access attempts. Contrary to traditional approaches, OMM separates the organization model from the applications; thus, it allows independent and flexible role modeling to support realistically the dynamic authorization requirements in a rapidly changing business world.     

CSCW协同建组自动协商模型研究

文章提出了支持协同工作组建立的自动协商模型,定义了agent协商协议、协商算法和协商agent用于产生及评估offer、counter-offer的效益决策函数,分析了算法时间耗用,与现有协商模型和协商建组FITS/CL框架进行对比,验证了该模型在支持用户参加多个协同组、进行多协商方面的优势,解决了组建立中的群体决策问题,对探索自动建组方式进行有益尝试。     

基于Web的NSA和NSS集成的商务洽谈系统

商务洽谈是解决电子商务冲突的最好方法之一。该文研究和讨论了基于Web的集成商务洽谈的两大实现技术：洽谈软件代理NSA和洽谈支持系统NSS,并给出了一个基于Web的NSS和NSA集成的商务洽谈系统框架。