Fourteen contributions apply multi-agent methods to distributed architectures for production planning and supply chain management, the design of distributed organizations, and general network interactions. The studies compare approaches to auction trading by consortia in multi-agent systems, assess distributed coordination in dynamic assignment of time-critical entities among multiple sites, and model the production and transportation decisions of a chemical company with two manufacturing facilities. Other topics include a fuzzy hierarchical production planning technique, small and medium enterprise project coordination, the redefined role of consumer as prosumer, and e-learning with the Second Life virtual world website.
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