Forrester foresees the self-regulating capabilities of long-standing energy and telecom transmission networks to extend to manufacturing supply chains, paving the way for adaptive supply networks. There are four classes of agents that will increase the supply networks' adaptability, these are seen as: Analysis agents will interpret data in real time. Analysis agents will use fuzzy logic to sift through the enormous data streams generated from Web-service-enabled business apps and sensor-embedded physical assets looking for meaningful information to pass to other agents. If their data analysis points to a pending outage or an out-of-bound deviation in a cross-enterprise process, these agents will immediately notify all nodes that could be impacted. Exception-handling agents will resolve glitches. Residing at individual nodes across the network, these agents will be notified of a developing exception. Through analyzing the bottleneck in real time, they will recommend the best course of action and redirect tasks to match the needs of their owner - by taking into account both local constraints as well as shared global objectives. Interaction agents will regulate access and security. As the watchdogs of interaction rules, they will ensure that other agents can access only the partner data they are allowed to and can interact only with agents they are allowed to collaborate with. This function is critical to facilitate agent-based interactions across firewalls, so a supplier can be sure that only its most trusted partners' agents can access its data. Policing agents will coordinate the network. To manage the activities of potentially competing or co-operating node-level agents, these agents will ensure that the constant pursuit of self-interest among individual nodes doesn't compromise the entire network's equilibrium -- for example, when several production lines or factories in a network are vying to produce the same product or use the same resource. Forrester is an independent technology research company that provides pragmatic and forward-thinking advice about technology's impact on business. Forrester offers products and services in four major areas: Research, Data, Consulting, and Community. Established in 1983, Forrester is headquartered in Cambridge, Mass., USA.