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 , iftt 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. 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