Coordination mechanisms for multi-agent manufacturing systems: applications to integrated manufacturing scheduling

The advent of information technology (IT) has made today's manufacturing systems increasingly distributed. Typically such a system consists of a complex array of computer-based decision units, controllers, and databases. Rather than dealing with each component individually, it is necessary to have a new paradigm for management of manufacturing systems, so that all the components and their operations can be managed in an integrated fashion. The multi-agent framework presented in this paper is such a paradigm for achieving system integration. We specifically emphasize the coordination mechanisms needed for ensuring the orderly operations and concerted decision making among the components-i.e., agents-of the manufacturing systems. The application of the framework to a printed circuit board manufacturing system and the performance results are also described.