Track: Decision Technologies and Service Sciences
Minitrack: Intelligent Decision Support for Logistics & Supply Chain Management


The minitrack features theoretical developments, real-world applications and software solutions related to solving decision problems in logistics and supply chain management. Methods include optimization, heuristics and meta-heuristics, simulation, agent technologies, and descriptive methods.

This minitrack is a continuation of the successful minitrack “Intelligent Decision Support for (e-)Logistics and Supply Chain Management” of HICSS-36 through HICSS-42. In each case accepted papers were usually being presented in two or three sessions and an open forum on future issues of e-Logistics took place. The sessions were always attended by 15 to 20 people with an exception in 2005 where attendance was somewhat higher at about 20-25.

Information technology (IT) is a prerequisite for successful supply chain management (SCM) today and will become even more so in near future. The logistics and SCM field is developing very dynamically. Business-to-business transactions are made via the Internet and enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems that manage the transactional information within the enterprise. While IT systems are vital components in supply chains, their successful management rests on intelligent and coordinated decision making throughout the logistics network. Intelligent decision support using advanced decision technologies are becoming increasingly important in logistics and SCM. Data warehouses and data mining can be used to store and analyze product, inventory, and sales information. Simulation and optimization, which can be found in advanced planning and scheduling systems, can be employed for, e.g., inventory, production, procurement, and distribution planning. Intelligent agents can e.g. communicate with different partners in the supply chain, assist in collecting information, share product information, negotiate prices, and distribute alerts throughout the logistics networks. The design and implementation of intelligent decision technologies to support human agents in logistics and SCM is a very active field in research, consulting and software development. Many such technologies or systems have been implemented recently or are currently in the stage of implementation. We do, therefore, believe that this minitrack will be recognized by both the scientific community and practitioners developing or using logistics and SCM solutions.

We aim again at organizing a minitrack consisting of two or three sessions depending on the number of high quality submissions. We seek papers dealing with decision technologies which contribute to intelligent decision support in the whole field of logistics and in particular in all categories of SCM. This includes but is not restricted to simulation, optimization, heuristics, metaheuristics, agent technologies, descriptive models, data warehousing, and data mining. We are especially interested in real-world applications and in software solutions which assist in solving decision problems. This is extended towards, e.g., advanced planning systems and the intelligent use of enterprise resource planning systems. Also conceptual ideas, reports on projects in progress, and case studies are welcome. Moreover, teaching cases both at the university as well as the executive level may be of interest.


Minitrack Co-chairs:

Hans-Jürgen Sebastian (Primary Contact)
RWTH Aachen University
Department of Operations Research and Logistics Management
Templergraben 64, 52062 Aachen, Germany
Phone: +49-241 80 9 61 85
Fax: +49-241 8092-168
Email: sebastian@or.rwth-aachen.de

Andreas Fink
Helmut-Schmidt-University Hamburg
Institute of Computer Science, Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences
Holstenhofweg 85, 22043 Hamburg, Germany
Phone: +49-40-6541-2857
Email: andreas.fink@hsu-hamburg.de

Stefan Voß
University of Hamburg
Institute of Information Systems (IWI)
Von-Melle-Park 5, 20146 Hamburg, Germany
Phone: +49-40-42838-3062
Fax: +49-40-42838-5535
Email: stefan.voss@uni-hamburg.de