2007 TAC SCM Survey

Alberto SardinhaNorman Sadeh

e-Supply Chain Management LabCarnegie Mellon University

Outline

• Results of the TAC SCM Survey 33 Respondents from

From 20 different organizations From 13 different countries

• The survey was conducted between November 15, 2007 and December 19, 2007.

Question 1

• Enter your name and that of your organization

Number of Respondents per Organization

0

1

2

3

4

Benemérita Univ. Autónoma de Puebla

Bogazici UniversityBrown University

Cork Constraint Computation Centre

IIIT Hyderabad

Politehnica University Bucharest

Shiraz university

Univ. of Science and Technology of China

University of GroningenUniversity of LiverpoolUniversity of Southampton

University of Western Sydney

University of Zagreb

Vrije Universiteit AmsterdamWayne State University

Aristotle University of Thessaloniki

University of MinnesotaUniversity of Texas - Austin

University of MichiganCarnegie Mellon University

Number of Respondents

Question 2

• Indicate each of the years when you had an entry in the TAC-SCM tournament

Indicate each of the years when you had an entry in the TAC-SCM

tournament

0 5 10 15 20 25

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

No entry so far

Number of OrganizationsNumber of Respondents

Question 3

• If you had entries in 2006 or earlier but didn’t enter the competition in 2007, what was (were) the main reason(s).

If you had entries in 2006 or earlier but didn’t enter the competition in

2007, what was (were) the main reason(s)

0 1 2 3

I have no interest in this game anymore

Did not have time

Did not have the necessary manpower

Entry fee is too high

Other Reasons

• I was the game master

• TAC SCM work is not part of my core research area

Question 4

• Assuming that the 2008 competition takes place in July-August, which of the following TAC-SCM events do you plan to enter.

Which of the following TAC-SCM events do you plan to enter

0 5 10 15 20 25 30

TAC-SCM baseline game

Procurement Challenge

Prediction Challenge

Question 5

• Would you be more inclined to participate if the 2008 TAC-SCM event was collocated with a major conference (e.g. AAAI2008) rather than held as a virtual event.

2008 TAC-SCM event

0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16

Prefer collocation with majorconference (with optional attendance)

Prefer a virtual event

Does not matter

Question 6

• Which of the following would increase/decrease the chances you participate in future TAC-SCM Baseline games.

Which of the following would increase/decrease the chances you participate in future TAC-SCM Baseline

games?

Simplified version of the game

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

Would significantlyDECREASE the

chance I participate

Would somewhatDECREASE the

chance I participate

NEUTRAL Would somewhatINCREASE the

chance I participate

Would significantlyINCREASE the

chance I participate

Number of Respondents

Which of the following would increase/decrease the chances you participate in future TAC-SCM Baseline

games?

Significantly altered version of the game

02468

10121416

Would significantlyDECREASE the

chance I participate

Would somewhatDECREASE the

chance I participate

NEUTRAL Would somewhatINCREASE the

chance I participate

Would significantlyINCREASE the

chance I participate

Number of Respondents

Which of the following would increase/decrease the chances you participate in future TAC-SCM Baseline

games?

Keep everything the same

02468

10121416

Would significantlyDECREASE the

chance I participate

Would somewhatDECREASE the

chance I participate

NEUTRAL Would somewhatINCREASE the

chance I participate

Would significantlyINCREASE the

chance I participate

Number of Respondents

Comments

• A version of the supply chain trading competition that includes human competitors (e.g. humans control high level parameters such as level of risk or target market share or product mix while agents take care of routine day-to-day trading activities)

• Maintain (or increase) a robust set of good players, so that competition stays strong. Also, work on strengthening the TAC community, so that a good prize for the winning team can be introduced.

Comments

• The research questions have to be very clear. Adding complexity without a clear set of research questions seems unhelpful.

• Should make the code of the previous competition open source !!

Question 7

• Which of the following would increase/decrease the chances you participate in future Procurement Challenge games.

Which of the following would increase/decrease the chances you participate in future Procurement

Challenge games?

Simplified version of the game

0123456789

10

Would significantlyDECREASE the

chance I participate

Would somewhatDECREASE the

chance I participate

NEUTRAL Would somewhatINCREASE the

chance I participate

Would significantlyINCREASE the

chance I participate

Number of Respondents

Which of the following would increase/decrease the chances you participate in future Procurement

Challenge games?

Enhanced version of the game

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

Would significantlyDECREASE the

chance I participate

Would somewhatDECREASE the

chance I participate

NEUTRAL Would somewhatINCREASE the

chance I participate

Would significantlyINCREASE the

chance I participate

Number of Respondents

Which of the following would increase/decrease the chances you participate in future Procurement

Challenge games?

Introduction of multiple categories to allow for multiple winners

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

Would significantlyDECREASE the

chance I participate

Would somewhatDECREASE the

chance I participate

NEUTRAL Would somewhatINCREASE the

chance I participate

Would significantlyINCREASE the

chance I participate

Number of Respondents

Which of the following would increase/decrease the chances you participate in future Procurement

Challenge games?

Keep everything the same

02468

10121416

Would significantlyDECREASE the

chance I participate

Would somewhatDECREASE the

chance I participate

NEUTRAL Would somewhatINCREASE the

chance I participate

Would significantlyINCREASE the

chance I participate

Number of Respondents

Comments

• Have suppliers that can enter both long-term and one-off procurement contracts. Capacity not committed under long-term contracts is made available for one-off procurement contacts.

• Separate classes of suppliers seems unnecessarily artificial. Long-term contracts should compete with short-term availability.

Comments

• It's just a matter of prioritizing against other competition opportunities given available students and other resources.

Question 8

• Which of the following would increase/decrease the chances you participate in future Prediction Challenge games.

Which of the following would increase/decrease the chances you

participate in future Prediction Challenge games?

Inclusion of new prediction metrics

02468

101214

Would significantlyDECREASE the

chance I participate

Would somewhatDECREASE the

chance I participate

NEUTRAL Would somewhatINCREASE the

chance I participate

Would significantlyINCREASE the

chance I participate

Number of Respondents

Which of the following would increase/decrease the chances you

participate in future Prediction Challenge games?

Multiple categories to allow for multiple winners

02468

101214

Would significantlyDECREASE the

chance I participate

Would somewhatDECREASE the

chance I participate

NEUTRAL Would somewhatINCREASE the

chance I participate

Would significantlyINCREASE the

chance I participate

Number of Respondents

Which of the following would increase/decrease the chances you

participate in future Prediction Challenge games?

Keep everything the same

02468

1012141618

Would significantlyDECREASE the

chance I participate

Would somewhatDECREASE the

chance I participate

NEUTRAL Would somewhatINCREASE the

chance I participate

Would significantlyINCREASE the

chance I participate

Number of Respondents

Comments

• Categories for things to predict: prices in the customer market, delivery delays in the supplier market.

Question 9

• Which of the following would increase/decrease the chances you participate in other TAC-SCM events.

Which of the following would increase/decrease the chances you

participate in other TAC-SCM events?

Introduction of an interactive version of the game

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

Would significantlyDECREASE the

chance I participate

Would somewhatDECREASE the

chance I participate

NEUTRAL Would somewhatINCREASE the

chance I participate

Would significantlyINCREASE the

chance I participate

Number of Respondents

Comments

• I like the addition of an interactive game and there is a high probability that I would participate in that, but I still would like to have the baseline game with autonomous agents only.

• The key will be to give the human user effective controls without significantly lengthening a game.

Question 10

• Do you find the TAC-SCM Agent repository useful?

Do you find the TAC-SCM Agent repository useful?

0 5 10 15 20 25 30

Yes

No

Number of Respondents

Question 11

• Do you have any suggestions for improving the research/educational value of the competition?

Suggestions for improving the research/educational value of the

competition

• Publish a book that distills lessons learned from the competition and helps prospective competitors develop new entries.

• Organize a workshop or publish a set of special issues on the work done by the teams. Just one special issue cannot cover all the issues related to TAC-SCM. - Perform a thorough post-analysis of the game, in order to explain the game and how one could participate.

Suggestions for improving the research/educational value of the

competition

• Maybe we could introduce package deals in the customer market? Something like Amazon.com has, e.g. options for Express shipping, 2 days or usual ground. Also, it would be good if the customer has other options to decide on an offer than just price. How about the reputation of the manufacturer? Did he always deliver in time, does he give discounts if I purchase bundle deals (not there yet in TAC SCM) from him? The bank interest rate should be dependent on different market conditions (economic regimes) in the market.

• Share analysis tools, not just agents.

Suggestions for improving the research/educational value of the

competition

• It is important on countries such as Mexico to promote this event, I know it is well known all around the world but here it is not.

• Do make it an open source competition since it will definitely increase the amount of research done.

Question 12

• Enter here any other comments you may have about TAC-SCM and how you would like the tournament to evolve over the years to come

Comments

• Promote the games. - Create links to industry. - Set-up a set of concrete rules, related to the game and the special conditions that may rise, when certain incidents happen. - Better organize new games.

• Maybe the scoring could be based on the steady state somehow...either by distributing components to agents at the start of the game, or by discounting the start-game effects some other way.

Comments

• According to my answers to question 11 I would like to see the game more evolving towards a "real" life supply-chain with customer utility functions, i.e. one manufacturer is more preferred than another, longer game periods (maybe 440 instead of 220 days to make more realistic setting and remove the start and end game effects), adding of transportation costs for shipments in both markets. Bank interest should be coupled with economic regimes in the market.

• To add more competitors due to each year i have seen less and less agents.