Control of execution in distributed manufacturing systems

With the intensive development of networks and distributed applications, industry must define new concepts of e-manufacturing and develop new solutions that will generate gains of productivity. This paper considers the Manufacturing Execution System (MES) facility, and presents two approaches which implement this functionality. The first approach addresses enterprises inter-connected in a Virtual Factory, and focuses on the monitoring service of the distributed manufacturing activities. The second approach uses a multi-agent technology to drive the production of a flexible manufacturing system, and it is shown how agents can collaborate to carry out scheduling and resource allocation within a plant.