=Paper=
{{Paper
|id=Vol-3126/paper25
|storemode=property
|title=Improvement of the integrated supply center functioning model with the use of the agent-oriented approach
|pdfUrl=https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-3126/paper25.pdf
|volume=Vol-3126
|authors=Olexander Gurin,Nataliia Salna
}}
==Improvement of the integrated supply center functioning model with the use of the agent-oriented approach==
https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-3126/paper25.pdf
Improvement of the Integrated Supply Center Functioning Model
with the Use of the Agent-Oriented Approach
Olexander. Gurin1, Nataliia Salna2
1,2
Kharkiv National Air Force University n.a. Ivan Kozhedub, Kharkiv, 61023, Ukraine
Abstract
The experience of using the Security and Defense Forces in the anti-terrorist operation and the
Joint Forces operation in deterring armed aggression in eastern Ukraine indicates that under
modern conditions the combat capabilities of the Armed Forces of Ukraine depend on timely
and comprehensive support of their military units. In order to provide comprehensive support,
compact institutions, bodies, structures, and military units of logistical support that respond
quickly to the needs of the troops are needed.
The article reveals the concept and purpose of an integrated support center; the main tasks for
the logistical support of military units (separate units) during operations (combat actions) have
been identified; the basic indicators of efficiency of functioning and the existing model of
functioning of the united support center concerning distribution of functional powers between
divisions have been determined.
The list of tasks of functioning of the integrated support center where information technologies
are applied is defined. The method of solving existing tasks in the process of conducting an
operation (combat) is considered to be the use of multi-agent systems. The solution of the issue
of integrated automation based on ERP solutions (resources management and planning concept)
and WMS (the information system providing warehouse processes management automation)
has been offered.
The paper summarizes the conclusions that multi-agent systems allow forecasting the availability of
stocks at an integrated supply center, to form a rational model of stock management, which is based
on non-stochastic demand and is a combination of known models, that will ensure continuity and
completeness of military units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine for their operations (combat actions).
Keywords 1
Provision of military units, Information Technology, logistics, stock management model, multi-
agent systems, integrated support center, stock availability forecasting.
1. Introduction of logistical support of territorial joint centers of
logistical support of the Logistics Forces
1.1. Statement of the issue Command of the Armed forces of Ukraine,
realizing models of dispersed/concentrated
The experience of implementing logistical support. The integrated support center is a
support measures in the anti-terrorist operation of warehouse with various material supplies, which
the Joint Forces (JF) actions revealed the serves military units located on the area of
existence of problematic issues related to the approximately 6-7 regions of Ukraine and the
timely, continuous and full provision of military operation of which is accompanied by certain
units (separate units) (divisions) in the course of problems, issues and difficulties [1] - [2].
hostilities. Material supplies are delivered to The main issues in the functioning of the
military units from warehouses of higher bodies integrated support center are the automation of the
ISIT 2021: II International Scientific and Practical Conference
«Intellectual Systems and Information Technologies», September
13–19, 2021, Odesa, Ukraine
EMAIL: goorin61@gmail.com (A. 1); n.salna@ukr.net (A. 2)
ORCID: 0000-0002-0951-3713 (A. 1); 0000-0003-1520-3989
(A. 2)
©️ 2021 Copyright for this paper by its authors. Use permitted under Creative
Commons License Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).
CEUR Workshop Proceedings (CEUR-WS.org)
processes of accounting and forecasting the need The lack of connection between the
for material supplies of units (divisions) to form a development of information technology (IT) and
reasonable need and eliminate the situation of lack multi-agent systems (MAS) to improve the
of the required volume of material supplies in the processes in the integrated support centers,
warehouse [12]. Thus, in the logistical support determines the relevance of the study.
organization theory and practice there is an issue
of improvement of work of integrated support 2. Presentation of the Main Material
centers, as the supporting body with use of
modern information technologies and tools of
construction of agent-oriented systems. The integrated support center is a
The Objective of the Article is to improve the multifunctional structure which is intended for:
model of functioning of integrated support centers elaboration of the needs of units
using the agent-oriented approach. (subdivisions) assigned to provide material
supplies of current and inviolable stocks for
peacetime and a special period according to
1.2. Analysis of Recent Research the relevant nomenclature and classes of
and Publications supply
reception, storage and issuance
The analysis of existing publications on the (shipment) of material supplies in accordance
research topic allows to conditionally divide them with the requirements of the governing
into several interrelated groups: documents
the first group of sources includes well- maintenance and accumulation of the
known papers in logistics by A.D. established stocks of material supplies of
Hadzhinskyi, V.S. Lukinskyi, B.A. Anikin, J. current and inviolable stocks for the provision
Stoke, T.H. Dudara, R.M. Yatsenko where the of military units to be supplied
basic theoretical models and methods of the timely and uninterrupted provision of
logistics theory which can be applied and at units (subdivisions) with material supplies of
improvement of work of the integrated support current and inviolable stocks in peacetime and
centers are presented special periods
the second group of sources includes control over the completeness of the
works on modern information technologies accounting of material supplies, their use
(IT) and multi-agent systems (MAS) by within the established norms, the legality of
authors D.A. Pospelova, V.I. Horodetskyi, M. use and write-off
Wooldridge, E.O. Kharitonov, V.A. control of timely refilling (renewal) of
Omelianenko; this methodological base allows material supplies of inviolable stocks
to improve models of work of integrated according to the relevant nomenclature and
support centers [7] classes of supply;
the third group of sources includes operational accounting of the need,
scientific works on modeling business availability, movement and quality (technical)
processes at industrial and commercial condition of technical means, determining the
enterprises by E.M. Mikhailova, S.V. need for repair of technical means for units
Peterkin, N. Kamran, K.I. Dmytryv, T.V. (subdivisions)
Marusei. These papers were used to formalize keeping records of property in
the work of the integrated support center in the quantitative and qualitative terms
form of structural models keeping quantitative records of long-term
the fourth group of sources includes items of material and technical means by years
papers which present the results of research on of commissioning for each separate account
improvement of systems of logistical support organization and implementation of
of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and other centralized transportation of material supplies
armed formations held by Kivliuk V.S. [6], of a certain nomenclature by road or rail to
Gurina O.M. [9], Trehubenko S.S. [10], Rolina units (subdivisions)
I.F. implementation of planning of supply and
Moreover, it can be concluded that the issue of refilling of material supplies of the certain
effective functioning of the integrated support nomenclature and provision of units
centers in the preparation and conduct of (subdivisions) to be supported, as well as
operations (combat actions) is considered limited. control over their timely implementation
implementation of planning of repair of
technical means by repair divisions and
service, inclusion (removal) of technical
means from stocks
working out of receipt and accounting
documents on registration of operations which
are connected with movement and changes of
qualitative (technical) conditions, writing off,
dismantling (division, destruction) of material
supplies of a certain nomenclature Figure 1: Dependence of the efficiency of support
organization of procurement of goods, on the time and conditions of operations
works and services, their receipt from
(combat actions:)
suppliers in accordance with the legislation of
Ukraine on public procurement for the needs
Vtr is the amount of need for material
of the Central Command, units (subdivisions)
resources of units (subdivisions)
and military administration bodies to be
continuity of the process of providing
supplied
units (subdivisions) with resources.
presence of the right of proportional
t
distribution (redistribution) of the existing k cpі dtі , (3)
material supplies of a certain nomenclature t dt
between units (subdivisions) where, tdti is the duration of time when the
regular and unannounced audits of ability to perform tasks for the purpose of the
material supplies in units (subdivisions), i-th part (subdivision) with material supplies,
analysis of the results of audits, inspections, delivered during preparation (provided
inventory checks and control over the t dti t dt
completeness of elimination of deficiencies );
provision of units (subdivisions) that are tdt is designated time of performance of tasks.
not to be supported (in a special period) with The value of this indicator is in the range [0,1],
material supplies of the relevant service on the t t
since dti dt .
basis of orders (decrees, instructions) of the The general indicator of continuity of
military administration [4] - [5]. designated tasks of units (divisions) is calculated
The main tasks of the integrated support by the formula.
centers are continuous, operational and complete n
support of units (subdivisions) during operations k cі
(4)
(combat actions). kc i 1
n
The following indicators of efficiency of
where n is the number of units (subdivisions) of
functioning of the integrated support centers are
considered to be the key ones [8,9] - [13]: the air forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine to
be supported.
efficiency of implementation of support
Based on the physical content of the indicator,
measures k c 0;1
. The criterion for the effectiveness of
1, ift t nec
functioning of the integrated support centers will
P(t ) t t nec , (1)
e t nec , iftt nec be the approximation of this indicator to the unit:
, kc 1
the ratio λ takes into account the conditions of .
operations (combat actions), which change the To date, the activity of integrated support
steepness of the characteristics P(t) as shown centers is not effective by all these indicators of
in Figure 1: efficiency (the real time of execution of orders is
Source: developed by the authors according to about 14 hours with the required 12 hours,
[8] - [9]. completeness of supply (no 20% in stock, no
completeness of provision of units required range of stocks) with their urgent need,
(subdivisions) continuity of operations (combat actions) (under
the given conditions of functioning of the
VZ
KP ,VZ Vtr , (2) integrated support centers, continuity of
Vtr
operations (combat actions) of units (divisions) of
where Vz is the amount of material assets the Armed Forces of Ukraine up to 7 days is
stored at the integrated support center; provided.
The existing model of functioning of accounting
integrated support centers concerning distribution forecasting
of functional powers between divisions, is planning
resulted in figure 2. control.
According to the results of the analysis, it is
determined that IT should be used in the following
tasks of the integrated support centers for:
Figure 2: Model of functioning of integrated support center
We will provide a justification that IT should center (timely orders, deliveries, inventory points,
be used in forecasting the need for integrated the rate of deficit).
support centers. A possible method of solving this issue at the
In the theory of logistics, there are a number of integrated support center in the process of
models of stock management, which have operations (combat actions) is the use of multi-
conditional names: agent systems (MAS). In a distributed
fixed order size environment, complex issues can be solved by
fixed order time interacting agents that act in parallel and
minimum-maximum asynchronously, jointly developing solutions to
combined. complex matters through self-organization. This
These models are effective in performing tasks principle is fundamentally different from the
by the structures of warehouses in terms of centralized approach and is similar to the
projected (uniform demand), or demand, the processes of self-organization in wildlife.
nature of which is clear. During the operation MAS is a network of agents that interact with
(combat actions) the nature of the demand for each other in a common environment and seek to
material supplies from the units (divisions) is achieve a common goal for the system.
determined by the conditions of the situation, so The interaction of agents in the system occurs
the use of classical models [10] - [11] is either directly through messaging, or indirectly,
impossible (limited). Therefore, it is necessary to through the reaction of the external environment
build adequate forecasting models to ensure the to the presence of other agents. The main property
absence of a deficit at the integrated support of the agent is autonomy, goals and ways to
achieve them, reaction to changes in the certain shelf life, optimizing the use of storage
environment. facilities.
MAS may consist of agents of different types When choosing a program for WMS
with their own behavior, characteristics, implementation, it is necessary to take into
limitations and goals. Agents like software can be account the capabilities of software, flexibility in
written in different languages, run on different customization, specifics, current and planned
platforms and be distributed on a computer tasks performed by the integrated support centers
network. MAS are usually open and contain a and units to be supported. The advantage of using
variable number of agents: agents can enter the computer information systems is the
environment of interaction and leave it [7]. formalization of processes (ordering and
In logistics, order and resource agents are minimization of errors).
elements of a network of needs and capabilities Since WMC is the system, which is an open
that interact in the virtual space of the system. source system and provides a standard warehouse
They enter into contracts to perform actions, topology, it is possible to expand its capabilities
strengthening or weakening connections with MAS. In addition, the introduction of these
depending on the situation, where the state and technologies will increase efficiency (Table 1).
configuration of the network corresponds to a Source: developed by the authors according to [8].
certain dynamic schedule. Agents of needs and
opportunities, in turn, if necessary, generate Table 1
additional agents. The constant search for Comparative table of results
consensus by mutually acceptable compensation Before
for fluctuations in conditions of uncertainty in the After storage
Indicator name storage
conduct of hostilities, leads to a dynamic automation
automation
equilibrium, organized independently [11]. To
Efficiency of
date, the automation of processes and their
implementation
integration with computer systems gives a new 14 hours 12 hours
of support
impetus to the development of MAS in the
measures
direction of logistics, when each object of the
Completeness
system is associated with its corresponding agent.
of provision of
Such systems will operate virtually without 80% 90%
units
external interference.
(subdivisions)
For complex automation of the integrated
Continuity of
support center, ERP-based solutions (resource
the process of
management and planning concept) and WMS
providing units 7 days 10 days
(information system that provides automation of
(subdivisions)
management of warehousing processes of the
with resources
integrated support centers) are proposed.
Logistics concepts allow to determine the
properties and characteristics of logistics 3. Conclusions
processes on a single methodological basis.
ERP is the effective planning and management The use of MAS allows forecasting the
of all the resources needed to produce and sell availability of stocks at the Central Command, to
products. The purpose of the ERP concept is to form a rational model of stock management,
integrate all departments and functions into a which is based on non-stochastic demand and is a
single computer system that can serve all the combination of known models that will ensure
specific needs of separate departments. It continuity and completeness of military units
combines all bodies and departments within one (separate divisions) of the Armed Forces of
integrated program that works with a single Ukraine.
database, so that everyone can more easily share
information and communicate with each other.
WMS consists in active warehouse 4. References
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