FABMAS is a hierarchically organized multiagent system for productioncontrol of semiconductor wafer fabrication facilities (wafer fabs). The productioncontrol of wafer fabs is challenging from a complexity and coordinationpoint of view. Semiconductor manufacturing involves one of the most complexmanufacturing processes ever used. In this paper, we describe the application domainand major design decisions that lead to the FABMAS system prototype. Adetailed discussion of the suggested software architecture of the agent-based systemis included. Furthermore, we present the results of computational experimentsthat show that FABMAS outperforms dispatching based production controlschemes that are currently in use. The paper also discusses some limitations anddrawbacks of the suggested approach and identifies areas of future research.
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