A multi-agent based manufacturing control strategy for responsive manufacturing

In the competitive and dynamic global market, manufacturing enterprises will require responsive manufacturing systems that are capable of responding rapidly to dynamic changes, to fulfil customer needs and to rival with business competitors. It is essential for new manufacturing control strategies to be adopted, to maximise the responsiveness of manufacturing systems. This will require the integration of process planning and production scheduling. This paper introduces a multi-agent based framework in which process planning and production scheduling are integrated, as a preliminary step towards agile manufacturing. In addition, this framework will enable the utilisation of manufacturing resources to be dynamically optimised as well as provide a platform on which alternative configurations of manufacturing systems can be assessed. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.