A multi-agent system for manufacturing material resource planning

Traditional approaches for manufacturing material resource planning (MARP) typically result in a large monolithic model that is difficult to solve, understand, and maintain. The paper presents a constraint programming system for intelligently solving complex MARP operation problems. The domain-specific architecture provides four orthogonal sections that contain basic problem templates; the algorithm library organizes taxonomic problem-solving algorithms; the predefined solution library saves typical and reusable problem solutions. In the system, intelligent agents work together to construct problem specifications, select suitable algorithms, solve pending problems, and evolve a population of solutions towards a Pareto-optimal frontier.