A sales agent for part manufacturers: VMSA

The sales activity of most parts manufacturing companies is based on orders of buyers. The process of promotion, receipt and selection of orders of the parts manufacturers is closely coupled with the load status of the production lines. On deciding whether to accept an order or not, as well as negotiating with buyers, sales persons need information such as load and schedule of production lines, and manufacturability of the order. Manufacturability analysis, process planning, and scheduling are therefore key features in developing an agent of sales activity for the parts manufacturing business. In this Z .paper, an intelligent agent, a virtual manufacturing-based sales agent VMSA with multi-agent architecture is proposed to support the sales activity for the parts manufacturers in the Internet environment. A VMSA has an integrated architecture of agent and virtual manufacturing. The prototype of VMSA has been developed for a machine parts manufacturing company that has lathe machines, ...

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2000
• Where: DSS
• Authors: Hyung Rim Choi, Hyun Soo Kim, Young Jae Park, Kyoung Hwan Kim, Myung Ho Joo, Hyung Soo Sohn
• Keywords: DSS 2000, Parts Manufacturers, Production Lines, Sales Activity