Multi-agent Approach to Production Scheduling in Foundries

The paper describes a complete framework that uses a multi-agent approach for production scheduling in a foundry. Different types of autonomous agents have been designed, each playing a different role in the supply chain management of the fodundry, along with their responsibility and behavior in the system. In order to generate a proper and reliable schedule the agents negotiate with each other by sending messages compliant to FIPA ACL standard. A prototype of the system has been implemented in JADE and allowed to conduct preliminary simulation of the system. Although some agents some agents have been omitted in the prototype, it was possible to verify the main assumptions of the system, as well as, to indicate and discuss potential problems with its implementation into production practice.