6. Conclusion and prospects
This paper studied decentralised planning in a two-echelon divergent supply chain. The planning process has an
advantage to simultaneously consider:
(1) coordination of the supply chain actors with a convergent contract based on quantity discount,
(2) local planning optimisation with lot-sizing models, and
(3) iteration of the planning on a rolling horizon basis at the same time.
The integration of all these features in a planning process is new from our knowledge. Due to the double
complexity of this problem, and both systemic and complexity aspects, we have proposed to integrate simulation
of the planning process with a multi-agent system and optimisation of actors’ planning. The study focused on a
supply chain with one manufacturer which supplies to non-competing retailers. The optimisation models
including quantity discount were presented for the two kinds of actors. Experimental tests have been conducted
for several quantity discount parameters and the presented results have indicated their relevance on decisionmaking
support.
Future prospects concern the improvement of actors’ behaviour during simulation and the extension to more
complex supply chains. A manufacturer could change the quantity discount parameters during the simulation,
either to follow his dynamic costs and capacities, or adapt the parameters to his perception of the retailers’
behaviour. The negotiation process can also be improved by allowing actors to increase their proposal in some
periods to increase the overall profit. Furthermore, the supply chain structure can be extended with multiple
manufacturers supplying the same retailers, and with an addition of a third echelon. Multiproduct cases can also
be studied.