Multi-agent systems in production planning and control: an overview

Abstract

The ever fast changes of customers’ needs and demands ask for reconfigurable and adaptive production systems, which can provide companies with the proper level of agility and effectiveness, without disregarding at the same time cost factors. In the last decade, a large amount of research works on the adoption of multi-agent systems (MAS) in several industrial environments has flourished. This approach, unlike traditional centralized or multilevel hierarchical approaches, assumes the presence of several decision-making entities, distributed inside the manufacturing system, interacting and cooperating each other in order to achieve optimal global performance. Aim of this paper is at first to provide readers, which are not experienced with the multi-agent approach, with some definitions and categorizations of this paradigm. Secondarily, by making use of an extensive database of more than 100 contributions on this field, authors intend to evaluate how multi-agents systems have really impacted on the industrial practices at an enterprise and at a broader supply chain level. Finally, driven by the past research experiences of the authors and by the extensive literature search, considerations and remarks on the real potential benefits and on the major issues currently inhibiting the spread out of this paradigm are reported

Agent-Based Systems for Manufacturing

“…In agent-based manufacturing systems, agent technology is usually applied to high-level manufacturing control, but can also be applied in the lower level [89]. There exist some survey papers on agent-based production scheduling and control [90] [5], therefore, here we concentrate on the most important aspects. Collaborative coordination control (CCC) for a multimachine workstation is proposed in [91].…”

Learning to See Clear: Quantification and Multidimensional Assessment of Value Stream Mapping Alternatives Considering Variability

“…(Womack, Jones, & Roos, 1990) By eliminating waste and reducing lead time, the productivity of companies, work in progress levels and the flexibility regarding volume and variants can be systematically improved (Damm, 2006;Oeltjenbruns, 2000;Rogalski, 2010). So capacities and resources can be used in a more ideal way (Caridi & Cavalieri, 2004;Doolen & Hacker, 2005;Lian & van Landeghem, 2002).…”

Optimal Supply Chain Formation Using Manufacturers’ Negotiation in the Environment that the Sub-Contracts are Allowable

“…One way that such agents can be adaptive is to consider multiple ways to solve their sub-problems so that they can adjust their solution to produce the best possible result, subject to the restrictions on available processing, communications and information resources, etc (Lin et al, 2008). A number of recent studies have led to significant advances by placing more emphasis on complexity and dynamics of supply chains (Caridi & Cavalieri, 2004). Monteiro et al (2007) addressed a hierarchical architecture to integrate individual planner agent, negotiator agent, and mediator agent with a decentralized control for achieving robustness and flexibility of the supply chain network.…”