Performance evaluation of an auction-based manufacturing system using coloured Petri nets

The next generation of manufacturing systems is assumed to be intelligent enough to make decisions and automatically adjust to variations in production demand, shop-floor breakdowns etc. Auction-based manufacturing is a control strategy in which various intelligent entities in the manufacturing system bid themselves, accept bids and make selections among the bids available based on a heuristic. This paper deals with the simulation modelling and performance evaluation of a push-type auction (negotiation) based manufacturing system embedded in a pull-type production system using coloured Petri nets. Three different models of an auction-based manufacturing system have been discussed. This methodology helps in developing systems for real-time control, anticipation of deadlocks, and evaluation of various performance metrics like machine utilization, automated guided vehicle utilization, waiting times, work in process etc. Various decision-making rules were identified for the real-time control of auction-based manufacturing systems.