Using adaptive Web service multi agents for collaborative forecasting and countering bullwhip effect in SCM

Forecasting is one of the most important elements of supply chain management (SCM). Propagation and magnification of errors in forecasting is a common problem in SCM arena. The main cause of this bullwhip effect is the distortion of information from one end of the supply chain to the other. We propose a model for collaborative forecasting, and logistic management through the use of Web services, which in turn integrate legacy systems across the whole supply chain, intelligent agents are utilized for communication between supply chain partners. They make their decisions according to the set rules of an organization along with some algorithms for making the supply chain more efficient. Our architecture is adaptive and extensible as it can be extended to add functionalities when and where required.