Ontology and multi-agent based decision support for enterprise bidding

The paper discusses a decision support system (DSS) for bidding by manufacturing enterprises. It is based on a competence ontology, which can evaluate the competence of an enterprise, analyse its feasibility and prospective benefits, and optimize bids. The ontology of enterprise competence provides a terminology and micro-theory for the description of and reasoning about enterprise competence. The DSS adopts a scheduling system based on multi-agent negotiation, which estimates the time and cost to achieve the goal of inviting public bidding, and which provides an important basis for enterprise bidding decisions.