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TAC SCM Survey
Alberto SardinhaNorman Sadeh
e-Supply Chain Management LabCarnegie Mellon University
Outline
Results of the TAC SCM Survey 55 Respondents from
From 30 different organizations From 15 different countries
The survey was conducted between May 20, 2006 and June 3, 2006.
Question 1
Enter your name and that of your organization
Number of Respondents per Organization
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 30 35 40 45
2003
2004
2005
2006
No entry so far
Number of OrganizationsNumber of Respondents
Question 3
If you had entries in 2005 or earlier but didn’t enter the competition in 2006, what was (were) the main reason(s)?
If you had entries in 2005 or earlier but didn’t enter the competition in 2006, what was (were) the main reason(s)
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Dates of the 2006tournament were too tight
Tired of trying to win
Entry fee is too high
Other (please specify)
Number of Respondents
If you had entries in 2005 or earlier but didn’t enter the competition in 2006, what was (were) the main reason(s)
Most common answers*:
Busy Schedule Joined another team The current game does not provide enough
opportunities for machine learning
(*) This is a subset of the answers. The full text is provided separately
Question 4
Assuming that the 2007 competition takes place in July-August, which of the following would increase/decrease the chances you participate?
Which of the following would increase/decrease the chances you participate?
Keep everything as is
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
Wouldsignif icantly
DECREASE thechance I
participate
Wouldsomew hat
DECREASE thechance I
participate
NEUTRAL Wouldsomew hat
INCREASE thechance I
participate
Wouldsignif icantly
INCREASE thechance I
participate
Which of the following would increase/decrease the chances you participate?
Additional awards to recognize best agents in different categories
05
1015202530
Wouldsignif icantly
DECREASE thechance I
participate
Wouldsomew hat
DECREASE thechance I
participate
NEUTRAL Wouldsomew hat
INCREASE thechance I
participate
Wouldsignif icantly
INCREASE thechance I
participate
Which of the following would increase/decrease the chances you participate?
Introduction of specifications aimed at bringing the game closer to current supply chain
management practices
0
5
10
15
20
25
Wouldsignif icantly
DECREASE thechance I
participate
Wouldsomew hat
DECREASE thechance I
participate
NEUTRAL Wouldsomew hat
INCREASE thechance I
participate
Wouldsignif icantly
INCREASE thechance I
participate
Which of the following would increase/decrease the chances you participate?
Simplified specifications
0
510
15
2025
30
Wouldsignif icantly
DECREASE thechance I
participate
Wouldsomew hat
DECREASE thechance I
participate
NEUTRAL Wouldsomew hat
INCREASE thechance I
participate
Wouldsignif icantly
INCREASE thechance I
participate
Which of the following would increase/decrease the chances you participate?
e.g. semi-finals with 24 agents and finals with 12 agents, being mixed and matched for a couple of days
New tournament rules
0
510
15
2025
30
Wouldsignif icantly
DECREASE thechance I
participate
Wouldsomew hat
DECREASE thechance I
participate
NEUTRAL Wouldsomew hat
INCREASE thechance I
participate
Wouldsignif icantly
INCREASE thechance I
participate
Which of the following would increase/decrease the chances you participate?
e.g. 15-20 minute games instead of 55 minute games - with possible provisions to reduce startup/shutdown effects
Shorter games to facilitate testing
02468
101214161820
Wouldsignif icantly
DECREASE thechance I
participate
Wouldsomew hat
DECREASE thechance I
participate
NEUTRAL Wouldsomew hat
INCREASE thechance I
participate
Wouldsignif icantly
INCREASE thechance I
participate
Which of the following would increase/decrease the chances you participate
Significantly altered rules to “re-open” the competition
0
5
10
15
20
Wouldsignif icantly
DECREASE thechance I
participate
Wouldsomew hat
DECREASE thechance I
participate
NEUTRAL Wouldsomew hat
INCREASE thechance I
participate
Wouldsignif icantly
INCREASE thechance I
participate
Which of the following would increase/decrease the chances you participate?
e.g. combination of short-term and long-term procurement contracts
Keep the game as is but introduce a second league with new challenges
05
1015
2025
Wouldsignif icantly
DECREASE thechance I
participate
Wouldsomew hat
DECREASE thechance I
participate
NEUTRAL Wouldsomew hat
INCREASE thechance I
participate
Wouldsignif icantly
INCREASE thechance I
participate
Question 5
Please use this box to provide additional details on any of your answers under Question 4
Sample of Responses - I :
Improve agentware documentation
"Start-Kit" for new competitors Improved API if possible to assist agent modularity Donations and symbolic entry fees instead of 250$ More complicated factory problem
e.g. switch-over costs, multiple resources, machine breakdown perhaps correlated with high utilization
Double the game length to make it more realistic and to reduce start and end game effects
A more complex reputation management
Sample of Responses - II* :
Introduction of multiple leagues “Experimental" league with a new set of rules League with 2006 rules Undergraduate league League with "simpler" specifications
“The current supplier model encourages early component orders and discourages the use of negotiation strategies”
(*) This summary provides a “small portion”/highlights of all the comments. The full text is provided in another file.
Sample of Responses - III* :
Availability of game data should be delayed till after the tournament is over
More opportunities for learning Competition should be designed to test security aspects of
agents Finals with 12 agents Reduce predictability on the customer side Introduce a loan limit Products could have zero demand for several days at the
beginning or end of games – e.g. product launch and phase-out
Allow manufacturers to respond to consumer bids with offers for substitutable products (e.g. different CPUs, etc)
Question 6
Please briefly describe your main research interests and motivations for participating in TAC-SCM e.g. “adaptive techniques”, “optimization”, “Supply
Chain Management”, “game theoretic issues”, etc.
Please briefly describe your main research interests and motivations for participating
in TAC-SCM
First Research Interest Mentioned*
0 2 4 6 8 10
distributed systems.
Multi agent simulation
Online trading
resource allocation
Automated trading / Trading strategy
Intelligent Agents
Machine Learning
Agent Architecture / Agents implementation / MAS
Optimization
Game theory / Strategic analysis / Auction theory
Adaptive techniques
Supply Chain Management
Number of Respondents
(*) First topic listed – even though respondents were not instructed to list topics in any particular order
Research Interests (All 5 options)
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
Applying economics to e-commerce
Architectures for decision-making
Automated trading
Competition challenge
Control theory
Decision making
distributed systems.
Dynamic modeling
High number of participants
Multi agent simulation
Multi-agent interaction
Multi-agent planning and learning
Online trading
Opponent modelling
Performance evaluation
Planning
Process synchronization
Reactiveness and proactiveness
Reasoning about uncertainty
Software engineering
Teaching tool in multi-agents grad class
Automated trading / Trading strategy
Intelligent Agents
Market design
Negotiation
resource allocation
Scheduling under uncertainty
Agent Architecture / Agents implementation / MAS
Machine Learning
Adaptive techniques
Optimization
Supply Chain Coordination
Game theory / Strategic analysis / Auction theory
Number of Respondents
Question 7
Do you use TAC-SCM software in courses that you teach?
Do you use TAC-SCM software in courses that you teach?
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
Undergraduate course Graduate course
Nu
mb
er o
f R
esp
on
den
ts
Do you use TAC-SCM software in courses that you teach?
Average Enrollment - Undergraduate course
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
1-5 6-10 11-15 16-20 21-30 31-50 51-100 >100
Number of students per year
Nu
mb
er
of
Re
sp
on
de
nts
Do you use TAC-SCM software in courses that you teach?
Course offered since (Undergraduate)
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
3.5
2003 2004 2005 2006
Nu
mb
er o
f R
esp
on
den
ts
Do you use TAC-SCM software in courses that you teach?
Average Enrollment - Graduate course
00.5
11.5
22.5
33.5
44.5
1-5 6-10 11-15 16-20 21-30 31-50 51-100 >100
Number of students per year
Nu
mb
er
of
Re
sp
on
de
nts
Do you use TAC-SCM software in courses that you teach?
Course offered since (Graduate)
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
2003 2004 2005 2006
Nu
mb
er o
f R
esp
on
den
ts
Question 8
Do you find the TAC-SCM Agent repository useful?
Do you find the TAC-SCM Agent repository useful?
0 10 20 30 40 50
Yes
No
Number of Respondents
Question 9
Do you have any suggestions for improving the research/educational value of the competition?
Samples Responses - I*
The competition doesn’t encourage opponent modeling The game does not provide detailed information about the
behavior of individual agents. Don’t release game logs but make more information reports
available to agents to somewhat compensate Moving TAC-SCM 2007 to July would increase participation We already make use of available data logs from previous
games. This has to continue. The rules of the game are too complex for students taking an
agent course to try to make their own agents. Perhaps, we could develop a lighter version that will pick the
students' interest enough to entice some of them to develop a full version agent.
Changes to the game rules will be needed to keep the research papers coming
(*) sample responses. The full text is provided in another file.
Samples Responses - II*
A more sophisticated game viewer will be very interesting for educational purposes.
I think having some support from industry is very important. Especially in credibility.
Making all the agents available after the competition It's difficult to justify dedicating significant resources to the SCM game when
you work for an organization that needs real impact and results. Increase the sharing of agent binaries, source code, analysis tools, agent
descriptions etc. The ideal specification should have both high variability and moderate
predictability. Long-term "strategic" decisions Games could last for 20 quarters (5 years), with each quarter taking 1 or 2
real minutes. A minor point about the current specification is that supplier prices have a
rather strange pattern, in that it is often possible to get components for cheaper in the very short term (2-3 days out) than in the mid term (6-10 days out).
(*) This summary provides a “small portion”/highlights of all the comments. The full text is provided in another file.
Samples Responses - III*
Developing a GUI front-end to develop agents. This is critical for many Industrial Engineering students and Business School students that lack programming skills.
The possibility of market shocks (i.e. suppliers going out of business or customer demand collapsing in one market segment)
(*) This summary provides a “small portion”/highlights of all the comments. The full text is provided in another file.
Question 10
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
Samples Responses - I*
I am imagining right now is an environment which houses lots of agents Having TAC run through late April was very unfortunate for my team Reduce the registration fee for the teams who lost in the previous year. It is
quite difficult for us to get the funding for next year if we did not do well in the finals.
Add a secondary market for components and finished goods. Allow agents to buy other agents.
Final rounds should include more games, more representative Attracting more participants could be done in 2 ways:
advertising this contest in the academic environment offering some cash prizes for the winners even if symbolic
The requirement to have exactly 6 agents in a game is a bit of a problem for tournament organization. Perhaps the number could be variable? Or perhaps the technique used this
year of having a "filler" agent is a reasonable compromise. Introduce mix of short-term and long-term contracts Introduce a one-day lag (or greater) before detailed game logs are
accessible to competitors
(*)The full text is provided in another file.