Multiagent Approach for Supply Chain Integration by Distributed Production Planning,Scheduling and Control System

摘要

The changing business environment in which manufacturers are acting creates theneed for more effective production processes planning, scheduling and control methods that areable to deal with uncertainties inherent in internal processes and external deliveries. The aim ofthe paper is to introduce the multiagent approach method for production planning, schedulingand control applicable in conditions of supply chain (SC) able to overcome the limitation ofstandard MRP/ERP systems in changing environment. Traditional approaches very often do notconsider the influence of uncertainty inherent in production processes and supplies. Therefore,there is a need for the integration of manufacturing process planning, scheduling and controlsystems for generating more realistic and effective plans. Conceptual framework for the multi-agent approach method involves the hybrid solutions combining the advantages of MRP simplelogic and theory of constrains (TOC) ability to synchronize all production and material flow insupply chain. Authors discuss how application of TOC buffers monitoring procedures can helpto improve the control of synchronized production and material flow in supply chain.