Research on Framework of Decision Support System for Partner Choice and Measurement in Supply Chain

Supply chain has been the most important contents for the company management and how to choose a right partner from many candidates has been a difficult decision for the company. The methods applied for partner choice and assessment now are mainly based on experiences and traditional structural methods. Some models and choice theories have been proposed in resent years, but what is presented is only stay on theory research. This study presents a perspective and technical framework based on decision support system and agents about the problem. The framework integrates the various elements of the system such as interface, agents, model-base, data warehouse, database, knowledge base etc. Multi-agents, i. e. outsourcing agent, contract control agent, are designed and applied in the decision level, management level and operation level in the supply chain. The application of agents and decision support system promote the flexibility and intelligence of the chain operation. The model proposed in this paper has the characteristics i. e. intelligence, flexibility, integration and collaboration and it provides a technical support on partner choice decision and assessment thus it is propitious to promote the supply chain performance.