Data Mining-Driven Analysis and Decomposition in Agent Supply Chain Management Networks

In complex and dynamic environments where interdependencies cannot monotonously determine causality, data mining techniques may be employed in order to analyze the problem, extract key features and identify pivotal factors. Typical cases of such complexity and dynamicity are supply chain networks, where a number of involved stakeholders struggle towards their own benefit. These stakeholders may be agents with varying degrees of autonomy and intelligence, in a constant effort to establish beneficiary contracts and maximize own revenue. In this paper, we illustrate the benefits of data mining analysis on a well-established agent supply chain management network. We apply data mining techniques, both at a macro and micro level, analyze the results and discuss them in the context of agent performance improvement.