Pricing-Based Goal-Setting in Complex Adaptive Logistics Systems

New developments in the fields of IT, RFID and systems science enable new approaches to supply chain management. CALS is currently a way to view some levels of a supply chain but has quite limited application at the lowest levels of supply chains where centralized decision making is a rule. Ongoing research is concentrating on holistically designing a supply chain along the principles of CAS in order to benefit from the favorable properties of these systems. However, this paper proposes that improper design of CALS brings the risk of very serious drawbacks, capable of hindering the sole functioning of the system. It then identifies the decision-making rules of the smart parts as one of the crucial design features that could define the difference between an ineffective CALS and a very efficient CALS. The Invisible Hand and other concepts of Classical Economics are described as possible starting points for developing decision-making rules for the smart parts of CALS that enable high efficiency thanks to natural phenomena.