Supply Chain Intro and Table of Contents Supply Chain August 2026 | страница 63

Evolvable Multi-Agent Hierarchical Architecture for Contested Logistics Ecosystems
CONTENTS Abstract.............................................................................................................................. 58 1 Introduction: From Supply Chains to Contested Logistics................................................. 61
2 Related Work and Background........................................................................................ 61
2.1
Supply Chain Resilience..................................................................................................... 61
2.2
Systems-of-Systems and Evolvability.................................................................................. 62
2.3
Multi-Agent Systems for Logistics and Supply Chains.......................................................... 62
2.4
AI-Ready Data and Real-Time Analytics.............................................................................. 62
2.5
Governance of Autonomous AI Systems............................................................................. 62
3 Problem Statement and Research Gap............................................................................. 62
4 Architectural Principles for Resilient and Adaptive Logistics Ecosystems.......................... 63
4.1
Evolvability as a First-Class Design Objective...................................................................... 63
4.2
Hierarchical Autonomy and Separation of Decision Concerns.............................................. 63
4.3
Interoperability by Design.................................................................................................. 64
4.4
Trust, Transparency, and Governance of Autonomy........................................................... 64
4.5
Graceful Degradation Under Contested Operations............................................................ 64
5 The Evolvable Multi-Agent Hierarchical Architecture....................................................... 65
5.1
Architectural Overview and Hierarchical Layer Design........................................................ 65
5.2
Evolvability and Hierarchical Autonomy............................................................................. 66
5.3
The AI-Ready Data Intelligence Platform............................................................................ 66
6 Illustrative Use Case: Logistics Modernisation Under Contested Conditions...................... 68
6.1
Scenario Context and Decision Challenge........................................................................... 68
6.2
Application of the Architecture.......................................................................................... 68
6.3
Illustrative Decision Cycle.................................................................................................. 69
6.4
Business Outcomes............................................................................................................ 69
7 Broader Implications for Circular, Smart, and Adaptive Supply Chains.............................. 70
7.1
Circular Supply Chains: Enabling Closed-Loop Coordination................................................ 71
7.2
Smart Supply Chains: Distributed Intelligence over Centralised Automation........................ 71
7.3
Adaptive Supply Chains: Resilience Through Evolvability and Graceful Degradation............ 71
7.4
Recommendations for Practitioners and Researchers......................................................... 71
7.5
Threat Model for Contested Logistics Ecosystems............................................................... 72
8 Limitations and Future Work........................................................................................... 72
8.1
Scope and Generalisability................................................................................................. 72
8.2
Evaluation and Quantification Challenges.......................................................................... 73
8.3
Adversarial Evaluation....................................................................................................... 73
8.4
Governance, Ethics, and Organisational Readiness............................................................. 73
9 Conclusion...................................................................................................................... 73 10 References...................................................................................................................... 74 Acknowledgements............................................................................................................. 76
EDM Association – Journal of Innovation 59