A Web-Based Decision Support System for Supply Chain Operations Management Towards an Integrated Framework J.B. Carvalho 1 , M.L.R. Varela 1(&) , G.D. Putnik 1 , J.E. Hernández 2 , and R.A. Ribeiro 3 1 Department of Production and Systems, School of Engineering, University of Minho, Azurém Campus, 4800-058 Guimarães, Portugal joelbcarvalho@gmail.com, {leonilde,putnikgd}@dps.uminho.pt 2 University of Liverpool Management School, Liverpool, UK J.E.Hernandez@Liverpool.ac.uk 3 UNINOVA - CA3, Campus FCT/UNL, 2829-516 Caparica, Portugal rar@uninova.pt Abstract. Operations management deals with the design and management of products, processes, services and supply chains. Supply chains integration and manufacturing operations management can benefit highly from the use of web- based technologies by ensuring a smooth connectivity and interoperability between software components, especially in a real-time basis by reinforcing the use of multi-agents combined with web service based technologies. The more the accurate and dynamic is the update of the information in a company, the more the enhancement of the manufacturing decision-making process will be over the whole company’s performance. Moreover, web-based technologies combined with multi-agents provide gains in agility and flexibility for building versatile supply chain management systems. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to present and propose an integrated web-based framework to cover the main integration requirement from a system point of view, this within the main purpose of supporting the supply chain management and operation in supply chain environments. For this purpose, an automotive supply chain industry is considered to illustrate the applicability of this proposed framework. Keywords: Web-based decision support system Á Supply chain and operations management Á Enterprise integration Á Multi-agent systems Á Automotive industry 1 Introduction Due to the use of many technology approaches in the recent decade, more and more organizations, as depicted in [1], are seeking to develop more effective integration links with partners’ technologies to improve the partnerships outside the traditional enter- prises’ boundaries. This issue has covered particular relevance in complex manufac- turing enterprise environments, such as supply chain networks. For instance, Meixell © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2014 F. Dargam et al. (Eds.): EWG-DSS 2013, LNBIP 184, pp. 104–117, 2014. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-11364-7_10