A heuristic game theoretic approach to resource sharing in reconfigurable manufacturing

Agility is an essential requirement for manufacturers to increase market share and profitability in a highly competitive industry. Having reconfigurable production lines is considered an essential aspect of modern manufacturing operations. This article investigates the possibility of using a non-cooperative game theoretic technique for making reconfiguration decisions at the resource controller level in such an environment. Under the proposed approach, a resource controller evaluates a configuration game in order to determine appropriate actions when faced with a reconfiguration decision. The prescribed action is defined by pure or mixed strategy equilibriums inside the configuration game. By evaluating each game, the resource controller can account for the potential actions and reactions of other resource controllers in the system. The investigation shows the applicability of such an approach to optimally resolving resource-sharing issues in an example semiconductor manufacturing environment .