Distributed product and facility prototyping in extended manufacturing enterprises

In order to reduce the cost at the early product development stages, the pl anners need methodologies and tools that would allow them to judge upon the implications of the product design on the required manufacturing processes and facilities for their production. This paper reports on a new theoretic al platform and a pilot implementation of a decision-making environment for distributed product and facility prototyping in an extended enterprise. Th e approach is based on an exchange of requests and information between coll aborative autonomous agents that support the design, manufacturing planning and facility formation activities. The decision-making is formalized as it erative matching of design, process and facility attributes using multileve l resource capability representation within the extended enterprise. The sy stem is implemented as an XML/CORBA-based environment for conveying design and manufacture messages across traditional technology boundaries. The repo rted research aims to provide the designers with a rapid manufacturing feas ibility assessment tool to be used at different design and planning stages in extended manufacturing enterprises.