Integration of a Flat Holonic Form in an HLA Environment

International audienceManagers need to create and sustain internal systems and controls to ensure that their customer focused strategies are being implemented. Companies are currently in a spiral of permanent optimization. Accordingly, many companies turn to their core activity. In this framework, one notices the development of the concept of “industrial partnership”. In this context and to control the customer–supplier relationships (CSR), we proposed a self-organized control model in which all partner entities (customers/suppliers) negotiate to guarantee good quality connections between customers and suppliers. This means meeting customer expectations as closely as possible and respecting supplier capacities. In this proposal, self-organized control is characterized more precisely by an organizational architecture of the flat holonic form type. This flat holonic form is based on the concept of autonomous control entity (ACE). The holonic architecture, the behaviour of an ACE, the interaction mechanisms between ACEs and the self-evaluation supplier process are presented, and then the modelling of ACEs using discrete event system specification (DEVS) is described. An implementation of the simulation of such a system was done via a distributed simulation environment high level architecture (HLA). A case study illustrating the proposed approach is presented

A self organized holonic control for mechatronics complex systems: application to a robotized car park

International audienceIn this paper, we describe the two conditions so that a complex system, composed of several mechatronics machines, may be qualified as a mechatronics system. The first condition reflects the aptitude of these machines to work together without the intervention of a central decision system of higher hierarchical level. The second reflects their aptitude to manage their own behavior and to generate the tasks to be carried out in the context of their execution. A self organized holonic control accomplishes these conditions. An example of implementation of this approach is presented with the application to a robotized car park

Another way to manage supply chains: holonic and multicriteria approach

International audienceToday’s suppliers are challenged to deliver quality to their customers. Managers need to create and sustain internal systems and controls to ensure that their customers-focused strategies are being implemented. Many companies increasingly turn to their core activities to improve their reactivity and to manage their costs. This paper proposes an approach for self-organized control of relations between companies in which all the members of a partnership negotiate to guarantee good quality connections between customers and suppliers. Each partner is associated with a decision- making entity named “Autonomous Control Entity” (ACE) through which he can evaluate his performance. The integration of these ACEs into a holonic control system is presented. Operations of an ACE have been modelled through the Discrete EVent system Specification (DEVS) formalism. Then, the validation of such a control system for a self-organized logistic partnership network was done through a distributed High Level Architecture (HLA) simulation environmen

PROSIS: An isoarchic structure for HMS control

International audienceThis paper presents a holonic and isoarchic approach to the Flexible Manufacturing System (FMS) control. This approach is based on a flat holonic form, where each holon is a model for each entity of the FMS, with a unifying level of communication between holons. After description of this model, called PROSIS, the interaction protocol and decision rules are presented. The objective is to increase the FMS productivity and flexibility, particularly on responsiveness aspects. This responsiveness is achieved through decentralized generation of the production tasks. The reactive behaviour of the FMS control is illustrated by the example of a flexible turning cell, upon occurrence of a failure or of an urgent batch order, and the resulting Gantt charts are shown

Pull control for Job Shop: Holonic Manufacturing System approach using multicriteria decision-making

International audienceFaced with international competition, industrial production increasingly requires implementation conditions which, in some cases, lead to seek new techniques for workshop control. This is the case when it is asked to establish Just in Time management in a Job Shop having the characteristics of working with small series. A new approach for the organization of the ‘control’ function in such a context is presented here. This approach relies on the use of the holonic paradigm on an isoarchic architecture and on a decision-making capacity based on a multicriteria analysis. The various concepts of this approach are addressed first. Then, the multicriteria decision mechanisms that are used are detailed, as well as the implementation and instrumentation phases. The first results that were obtained are presented

Environnement G-DEVS/HLA pour la simulation distribuée de systèmes de production multiprocessus

International audienceThis paper presents a simulation environment for manufacturing systems integrating control processes and operational processes. From the operational processes specification according to the JIS Z 8206 norm and from the control processes as Workflows standards, distributed G-DEVS models are generated. At first, the transformation of a process in G-DEVS models is described. Then, the implementation of a global simulation of the set of these models via an HLA architecture allowing interconnection and interoperability between the model components is presented. An illustration of the use of this environment is given in the microelectronic field. We conclude by the application of this approach to the study of the synchronizations between production lines and to the implementation of coupling between simulation and reality

Customers-Suppliers Relationship Management in an Intelligent Supply Chain

International audienceOutsourcing is leading to more and more complex industrial organizations. This can be attributed to the fact that several decisions centres interact. As a consequence, changes in customers-suppliers relationships can be noticed. In recent years, these relations have strongly evolved to lead to better internal management of each partner and a better general performance to satisfy customers. These evolutions created a new approach of the relations between companies, called ‘industrial partnership’, in the form of a network. Networks induce a need at customers-suppliers relation control level. The contribution and participation of each of the partners are thus fundamental to make Supply Chain Management (SCM) a successful project. The control system of each actor partner must thus be adaptable enough to satisfy the production requirements. Our contribution to the improvement of customers-suppliers relationship is a decentralized self-organized control model. In this model, the decision system manages a group of actors’ operations who are in a partnership (part of companies network). In this paper, we, particularly discuss a process for the evaluation of the suppliers network

Production Scheduling

Generally speaking, scheduling is the procedure of mapping a set of tasks or jobs (studied objects) to a set of target resources efficiently. More specifically, as a part of a larger planning and scheduling process, production scheduling is essential for the proper functioning of a manufacturing enterprise. This book presents ten chapters divided into five sections. Section 1 discusses rescheduling strategies, policies, and methods for production scheduling. Section 2 presents two chapters about flow shop scheduling. Section 3 describes heuristic and metaheuristic methods for treating the scheduling problem in an efficient manner. In addition, two test cases are presented in Section 4. The first uses simulation, while the second shows a real implementation of a production scheduling system. Finally, Section 5 presents some modeling strategies for building production scheduling systems. This book will be of interest to those working in the decision-making branches of production, in various operational research areas, as well as computational methods design. People from a diverse background ranging from academia and research to those working in industry, can take advantage of this volume