Distributed decision making for supply chain risk assessment

A method for determining supply chain risks, the method comprising the steps of:

• providing a plurality of data locations, each data location having an agent and data elements;
• performing distributed data mining by each of the agents using the data elements at the respective data location to produce a candidate decision for the respective location;
• passing each of the candidate decisions from the respective data location to a central mediator;
• determining a global decision by the mediator based on the candidate decisions;
• and
• generating predictive risk scores for the data elements from the global decision.

A method for determining supply chain risks, the method comprising the steps of:

• providing a plurality of data locations, each data location having an agent and data elements;
• performing distributed data mining by a first agent using the data elements at a first data location to produce a first candidate decision;
• passing the first candidate decision to a second data agent at a second location;
• performing distributed data mining by the second agent using the data elements at the second data location to produce a second candidate decision;
• determining a global decision from the candidate decisions, the global decision covering the data elements at all of the data locations;
• and
• generating predictive risk scores for the data elements from the global decision.

A system for determining supply chain risks, the system comprising:

• at least one memory unit at each of a plurality of locations, the at least one memory unit storing data elements;
• a processing unit at each of the plurality of locations, each processing unit including an agent configured to perform distributed data mining using the data elements at the respective data location to produce a candidate decision for the respective location;
• and
• a mediator, the mediator configured to determine a global decision from the candidate decisions, the global decision covering the data elements at all of the data locations, the mediator also being configured to generate predictive risk scores for the data elements from the global decision.