Distributed production planning and control agent based system

Abstract

A model of an Agent-based Production Planning and Control (PPC) system that can be dynamically adaptable to local and distributed utilization of production resources and materials is presented. The PPC system is based on the selection of resources to deal with one order of different quantities of one product each time. In this way, one scheduling solution is provided for that particular order. The production resources are selected and scheduled using a multi-agent system supported by an implementation of the Smith Contract Net, using Java Spaces technology. The multi-agent system is based on three main agents: Client, Resource, and Manager. These agents negotiate the final product, and the correspondent components, requested by the client. An order for each product (component) triggers a process of dynamic design of a production system to fulfil that particular order. This system exists until the end of the order.