Die synchrone Produktion*/Synchronous manufacturing - An approach for semi-autonomous production planning and control and human-based decision support

Abstract

Kurzfristige sowie ungeplante Änderungen – wie Auftragsschwankungen, Maschinenausfälle oder Krankheitstage der Mitarbeiter – beeinflussen die Produktionsplanung und -steuerung (PPS) von Industriefirmen. Trends wie Globalisierung und erhöhter Marktdruck verstärken diese Probleme. Zur Komplexitätsbewältigung bei der Entscheidungsfindung zur Fertigungssteuerung kommen in der Produktion Werkzeuge der „Digitalen Fabrik“, beispielsweise Simulationsprogramme, oder IT (Informationstechnologie)-Lösungen, wie Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES), zum Einsatz. Eine Verknüpfung dieser Bereiche würde einen echtzeitfähigen Datenaustausch erlauben, der wiederum eine echtzeitfähige Entscheidungsunterstützung bietet. Der Fachbeitrag stellt hierfür einen Lösungsansatz vor.   Sudden and unsystematic changes, such as fluctuations in order flow, machine failures, or employee sick days affect the Production Planning and Control (PPC) activities of industrial companies. Trends like globalization and increased market pressure intensify these problems. To master the complexity of decision-making in production control, tools of the digital factory (e.g. simulation systems) or IT systems (e.g. Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES)) are applied in manufacturing. Combining these areas would enable real-time capable data exchange which, in turn, provides real-time capable decision support. This article presents an approach for solving this problem.

A Human Centered Multi-Agent-System for Production Planning and Control

“…It provides the possibility to start an agent on any platform and it is not necessarily required to start multiple agents of the same type for each user. This approach, as shown in figure 2, is used in the project "SOPHIE" [2,9] and is described in the following paragraphs. To be able to use the agent with a web interface approach, the agents that support human integration have to be implemented so that they allow all human interactors to achieve a common goal.…”

“…The advancement of information and communication technology (ICT) and its increasing use in manufacturing leads to a higher significance of ICT in producing companies [1]. Today many different software systems are used in manufacturing already [2]. These are the systems of both the automation pyramid [3,4] and of the digital factory [5].…”

“…In a multi-agent system several agents act together [8]. The independent acting by agents within multi-agent systems enables the use of a linked communication in manufacturing [2,9]. Hereby, a support tool for PPC can be created which offers all needed information and data of different systems as a decision support tool.…”