Agent-based multiple shop floor manufacturing scheduler

This paper describes an agent-based architecture for scheduling multiple shop floors using a genetic algorithm-enhanced scheduling engine. The architecture consists of two main modules, the manufacturing scheduling server and shop scheduling client system. Two types of software agents, namely a supervisory agent and a shop floor agent, undertake the scheduling of individual shop as well as the global schedule. The supervisory agent coordinates the negotiations among the shop floor agents as they attempt to arrive at a global near optimal schedule, while, at the same time, resolving conflicts in the local shop floor schedules. The prototype agent-based multi-shop scheduling system was validated by a hypothetical six products × three shop floors and a plastic injection moulding company. In both cases, the prototype agent-based multi-shop scheduling system generated a feasible and near optimal schedule for the entire manufacturing system.