Combined parallel and agent-based methods in distributed logistics networks

Globalization and collaborative cooperation are key words for modern logistics management. Companies become “global players”, which have to react quickly to changing market conditions and which have additionally to cope with an intensive competition and an increase in flexibility. One possibility to face the increasing requirements of flexibility and reactivity to the market is the cooperation with formerly competing service providers in order to jointly offer a broad range of services. These services will be organized and managed in supply-nets. In those the independent cooperation partners can separately accept orders and under certain economic conditions can also pass these on to other partners against commission payments for sub-contracting. Thereby both partners would profit from the collaborative transport disposition because company-specific, economically unprofitable orders do not have to be rejected but instead can be profitably passed on. This paper examines approaches for the technical realization of network formations of independent service providers.