MasDISPO xt Process Optimisation by Use of Integrated, Agentbased Manufacturing Execution Systems Inside the Supply Chain of Steel Production

摘要

The production of steel normally constitutes the inception of many supply chains in different areas of industry. Steel manufacturing companies are strongly affected by bull whip effects and other unpredictable influences along their production chains. Improving their operational efficiency is required to keep a competitive position on the market. Hence, flexible planning and scheduling systems are needed to support these processes, which are based on considerable amounts of data, hardly processable manually anymore. MasDISPO xt is an agent-based generic online planning and scheduling system for the observation on MES-level of the complete supply chain of Saarstahl AG, a globally respected steel manufacturer. This paper concentrates on the horizontal and vertical integration of influences of rough planning on detailed and the other way around. Based on modeldriven engineering business processes are modeled on CIM-level, a service oriented architecture is presented for the interoperability of all components, legacy systems and others wrapped behind services. Finally, an agent-based detailed planning and scheduling ensuring interoperability in horizontal and vertical direction is approached effectively.