A framework of E-SCM multi-agent systems in the fashion industry

The fashion industry's supply chain is full of uncertainty and unpredictability. Thus, building an intelligent system to effectively capture the requirements of customers and help manage the supply chain is very important. Typical quick response (QR) systems have been broadly used in the fashion industry to serve as a way of maintaining an efficient supply chain management (SCM). The original functions of a QR system cannot, however, completely overcome the challenge of quickly satisfying the requirements of customers with effective customer relationship and quality of service. In this paper, we have integrated the typical management information system (MIS) development procedure with that of an e-fashion SCM multi-agent system. Some related research and reports from different countries have been thoroughly surveyed in order to find possible IT and non-IT methods for use in the SCM of fashion retailers. This paper thus provides an electronic fashion SCM system by adopting the techniques of the Semantic Web and multiple agents. The proposed system can integrate different information technologies to make its behavior more intelligent and to catch more useful information from customers. Its implementation also considers some practical issues in the fashion retailing SCM.