Abstract | ||
---|---|---|
Multi-agent systems offer a new and exciting way of understanding the world
of work. We apply agent-based modeling and simulation to investigate a set of
problems in a retail context. Specifically, we are working to understand the
relationship between people management practices on the shop-floor and retail
performance. Despite the fact we are working within a relatively novel and
complex domain, it is clear that using an agent-based approach offers great
potential for improving organizational capabilities in the future. Our
multi-disciplinary research team has worked closely with one of the UK's top
ten retailers to collect data and build an understanding of shop-floor
operations and the key actors in a department (customers, staff, and managers).
Based on this case study we have built and tested our first version of a retail
branch agent-based simulation model where we have focused on how we can
simulate the effects of people management practices on customer satisfaction
and sales. In our experiments we have looked at employee development and
cashier empowerment as two examples of shop floor management practices. In this
paper we describe the underlying conceptual ideas and the features of our
simulation model. We present a selection of experiments we have conducted in
order to validate our simulation model and to show its potential for answering
"what-if" questions in a retail context. We also introduce a novel performance
measure which we have created to quantify customers' satisfaction with service,
based on their individual shopping experiences. |
Year | DOI | Venue |
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2010 | 10.1504/IJSPM.2009.031096 | International Journal of Simulation and Process Modelling |
Keywords | DocType | Volume |
teamwork,empowerment,multi agent systems,customer satisfaction | Journal | abs/1003.3 |
ISSN | Citations | PageRank |
International Journal of Simulation and Process Modelling 5 (3),
215-232 , 2009 | 3 | 0.48 |
References | Authors | |
4 | 4 |
Name | Order | Citations | PageRank |
---|---|---|---|
Peer-Olaf Siebers | 1 | 186 | 27.03 |
Uwe Aickelin | 2 | 1679 | 153.63 |
Helen Celia | 3 | 46 | 6.44 |
Chris W. Clegg | 4 | 168 | 14.77 |