Agent Technologies for Virtual Enterprises in the One-of-a-Kind-Production Industry
Jeroen W.J. Gijsen, Nicholas B. Szirbik, and Gerd Wagner
International Journal of Electronic Commerce,
Volume 7, Number 1, Fall 2002, pp. 9.
Abstract: One-of-a-kind-products (OKP) virtual enterprises are highly individualized and perform unique projects. Structural and behavioral modeling are important aspects of the use of agents to support their information systems. This paper discusses business processes in the OKP environment in relation to the collaboration/cooperation mechanisms enacted between people and information systems in a distributed virtual enterprise (VE). The Agent-Object-Relationship (AOR) language and modeling methods are introduced for giving details about structure, interaction, and behavior. As an example, a generic model of a multi-agent system is mapped onto the virtual enterprise model.
Key Words and Phrases: Software agent provider, virtual enterprises.