COORDINATION MECHANISMS FOR MULTIAGENT MANUFACTURING SYSTEMS - APPLICATIONS TO INTEGRATED MANUFACTURING SCHEDULING

The advent of information technology (IT) has made today's manufacturi ng 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 syst ems, so that all the components and their operations can be managed in an integrated fashion. The multi-agent framework presented in this pa per is such a paradigm for achieving system integration, We specifical ly emphasize the coordination mechanisms needed for ensuring the order ly 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 r esults are also described.