Multi Agent Systems in Logistics: A Literature and State-of-the-art Review

Based on a literature survey, we aim to answer our main question: “How should we plan and execute logistics in supply chains that aim to meet today’s requirements, and how can we support such planning and execution using IT?†Today’s requirements in supply chains include inter-organizational collaboration and more responsive and tailored supply to meet specific demand. Enterprise systems fall short in meeting these requirements The focus of planning and execution systems should move towards an inter-enterprise and event-driven mode. Inter-organizational systems may support planning going from supporting information exchange and henceforth enable synchronized planning within the organizations towards the capability to do network planning based on available information throughout the network. We provide a framework for planning systems, constituting a rich landscape of possible configurations, where the centralized and fully decentralized approaches are two extremes. We define and discuss agent based systems and in particular multi agent systems (MAS). We emphasize the issue of the role of MAS coordination architectures, and then explain that transportation is, next to production, an important domain in which MAS can and actually are applied. However, implementation is not widespread and some implementation issues are explored. In this manner, we conclude that planning problems in transportation have characteristics that comply with the specific capabilities of agent systems. In particular, these systems are capable to deal with inter-organizational and event-driven planning settings, hence meeting today’s requirements in supply chain planning and execution.supply chain;MAS;multi agent systems

Emergent technologies for inter-enterprises collaboration and business evaluation

International audienceConventional manufacturing systems are designed for intra-enterprise process management, and they hardly handle processes with tasks using extra-enterprise boundaries data. Besides, inter-enterprise collaboration and new IT enablers for industry 4.0 are becoming a highly topical issue to study, due to : (a) The emergence of new technologies mainly Internet of Things, big data processing and Cyber-Physical systems (b) The new customers' needs that face the SMEs. Many constraints and issues have to be taken into account before establishing Inter-enterprises collaboration, namely: The product information, the business processes and the heterogeneous data. Moreover, the exponential growth of data coming from all the enterprises causes several challenges regarding their exploitation. In this context, this study is interested in Big Data capabilities to help Small and Medium Enterprises to find out more lurking opportunities. We have focus on the combination between emergent IT technologies, mainly Big Data, and inter-interprises collaboration in order to provide an added value. The result of this study is a new approach, that could be adapted by SMEs, for new project evaluation within a network of enterprises

Developing Sense-and-Respond Capability in a Mobile Service Firm Enabled by Dispatching Technology: An Action Research Study

All organizations, including mobile services enterprises, must be able to adapt and respond to discontinuous and rapidly changing business environments. Although mobile service providers have considerable IT-enabled dispatching options, knowledge is limited on how to leverage these technologies to augment adaptive management practices that improve business performance and create customer benefits. Against this backdrop, my collaborative action research study adapted the framework and principles of sense-and-respond (S&R) adaptive enterprise design to help a mobile service provider, LSG, Inc., develop the transactional and transformational capabilities it needed to improve outcomes in providing field services for the State of Georgia’s lottery terminals. The dissertation examines how LSG leveraged its recent implementation of IT-enabled dispatching technology both to augment restructuring of its managerial framework and to develop adaptive strategies and modular capabilities that let it systematically sense and respond to rapid and unpredictable changes in its business environment. The study gave LSG an approach for developing and implementing adaptive enterprise design processes using the S&R framework as a heuristic to identify, modify, and redesign the command-and-control (C&C) organizational architecture and operational routines; this effort was augmented by new dispatching technology. My research revealed specific dynamic capabilities and guided senior managers’ implementation of new adaptive governance mechanisms, organizational learning processes, dynamic stakeholder resource commitments, and modular “customer-back” resource customization strategies. More generally, the research shows how adaptive enterprise design principles can transform and address the specific discontinuity challenges that small service enterprises face, and offers insights and understanding into how practitioner–researchers can use theory to leverage firm resources and assets to co-create operational value with stakeholders

Multi Agent Systems in Logistics: A Literature and State-of-the-art Review

Based on a literature survey, we aim to answer our main question: “How should we plan and execute logistics in supply chains that aim to meet today’s requirements, and how can we support such planning and execution using IT?” Today’s requirements in supply chains include inter-organizational collaboration and more responsive and tailored supply to meet specific demand. Enterprise systems fall short in meeting these requirements The focus of planning and execution systems should move towards an inter-enterprise and event-driven mode. Inter-organizational systems may support planning going from supporting information exchange and henceforth enable synchronized planning within the organizations towards the capability to do network planning based on available information throughout the network. We provide a framework for planning systems, constituting a rich landscape of possible configurations, where the centralized and fully decentralized approaches are two extremes. We define and discuss agent based systems and in particular multi agent systems (MAS). We emphasize the issue of the role of MAS coordination architectures, and then explain that transportation is, next to production, an important domain in which MAS can and actually are applied. However, implementation is not widespread and some implementation issues are explored. In this manner, we conclude that planning problems in transportation have characteristics that comply with the specific capabilities of agent systems. In particular, these systems are capable to deal with inter-organizational and event-driven planning settings, hence meeting today’s requirements in supply chain planning and execution

A framework for developing engineering design ontologies within the aerospace industry

This paper presents a framework for developing engineering design ontologies within the aerospace industry. The aim of this approach is to strengthen the modularity and reuse of engineering design ontologies to support knowledge management initiatives within the aerospace industry. Successful development and effective utilisation of engineering ontologies strongly depends on the method/framework used to develop them. Ensuring modularity in ontology design is essential for engineering design activities due to the complexity of knowledge that is required to be brought together to support the product design decision-making process. The proposed approach adopts best practices from previous ontology development methods, but focuses on encouraging modular architectural ontology design. The framework is comprised of three phases namely: (1) Ontology design and development; (2) Ontology validation and (3) Implementation of ontology structure. A qualitative research methodology is employed which is composed of four phases. The first phase defines the capture of knowledge required for the framework development, followed by the ontology framework development, iterative refinement of engineering ontologies and ontology validation through case studies and experts’ opinion. The ontology-based framework is applied in the combustor and casing aerospace engineering domain. The modular ontologies developed as a result of applying the framework and are used in a case study to restructure and improve the accessibility of information on a product design information-sharing platform. Additionally, domain experts within the aerospace industry validated the strengths, benefits and limitations of the framework. Due to the modular nature of the developed ontologies, they were also employed to support other project initiatives within the case study company such as role-based computing (RBC), IT modernisation activity and knowledge management implementation across the sponsoring organisation. The major benefit of this approach is in the reduction of man-hours required for maintaining engineering design ontologies. Furthermore, this approach strengthens reuse of ontology knowledge and encourages modularity in the design and development of engineering ontologies

A HOLISTIC APPROACH TO COMPUTER INTEGRATED MANUFACTURING ARCHITECTURE AND SYSTEMS DESIGN

This work addresses the problem of finding an improved solution to Computer Integrated Manufacturing (ClM) Architecture and Systems Design. The current approaches are shown to be difficult to understand and use, over complex. In spite of their complexity of approach they lack comprehensiveness and omit many factors and dimensions considered essential for success in today's competitive and often global market place. A new approach to ClM Architecture and Systems Design is presented which offers a simpler, more flexible and more robust format for defining a particular ClM System within a general architectural framework. At the same time this new approach is designed to offer a comprehensive and holistic solution. The research work involved the investigation of current approaches and research and development initiatives focusing particularly on the CIM-OSA and GRAI Integrated methodologies in the field of ClM Architecture. The strengths and weaknesses of the various approaches are examined. Developments in other related fields including manufacturing systems, manufacturing management, information technology and systems generally have been investigated regarding their relevance and possible contribution to an improved solution. The author has built on his practical experience in creating, designing and managing the implementation of a global CIM system. The authors work on several publicly funded collaborative research and development projects relevant to the problem area is described. These include CIM-OSA, IMOCIM and TIQS projects. In the latter two projects the author was instrumental in developing the methodological approach based on a systems approach to business processes in connection with the design of quality and manufacturing systems. Both of these projects have contributed to this work. The author has also participated in the global IMS programme as a rapporteur for the European Commission and this helped to provide a global perspective on the problems of manufacturing companies as they attempt to compete in a world wide market place. The results of this work provide the basis for a radically improved approach to ClM Architecture and Systems Design based on the holistic view of an enterprise. The approach developed supports the business process view of an enterprise; addresses the people and organisational aspects; leads to ClM solutions focused on meeting enterprise goals; and is able to deal with a significantly increased scope and complexity compared with existing methods yet is easily understood and more simple to simple to apply than current approaches

Collaborative environment to support a professional community

Dissertação apresentada na Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia da Universidade Nova de Lisboa para obtenção do grau de Mestre em Engenharia Electrotécnica e de ComputadoresRecent manufacturing roadmaps stress current production systems limitations, emphasizing social, economic and ecologic consequences for Europe of a non-evolution to sustainable Production Systems. Hence, both academic institutions and enterprises are committed to develop solutions that would endow enterprises to survive in nowadays’ extremely competitive business environment. A research effort is being carried on by the Evolvable Production Systems consortium towards attaining Production Systems that can cope with current technological, economical, ecological and social demands fulfilling recent roadmaps. Nevertheless research success depends on attaining consensus in the scientific community and therefore an accurate critical mass support is required in the whole process. The main goal of this thesis is the development of a Collaborative Environment Tool to assist Evolvable Production Systems consortium in such research efforts and to enhance Evolvable Assembly Systems paradigm dissemination. This work resulted in EASET (Evolvable Assembly Systems Environment Tool), a collaborative environment tool which promotes EAS dissemination and brings forth improvements through the raise of critical mass and collaboration between entities

Industrial automation based on cyber-physical systems technologies: Prototype implementations and challenges

Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) is an emergent approach that focuses on the integration of computational applications with physical devices, being designed as a network of interacting cyber and physical elements. CPS control and monitor real-world physical infrastructures and thus is starting having a high impact in industrial automation. As such design, implementation and operation of CPS and management of the resulting automation infrastructure is of key importance for the industry. In this work, an overview of key aspects of industrial CPS, their technologies and emerging directions, as well as challenges for their implementation is presented. Based on the hands-on experiences gathered from four European innovation projects over the last decade (i.e. SOCRADES, IMC-AESOP, GRACE and ARUM), a key challenges have been identified and a prioritization and timeline are pointed out with the aim to increase Technology Readiness Levels and lead to their usage in industrial automation environments.The authors would like to thank for their support the European Commission, and the partners of the EU FP6 SOCRADES (www.socrades.net), EU FP7 GRACE (www.grace-project.org), EU FP7 IMC-AESOP (www.imc-aesop.eu) and EU FP7 ARUM (www.arum-project.eu) projects, for their fruitful support and discussions.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Industrial agents in the era of service-oriented architectures and cloudbased industrial infrastructures

The umbrella paradigm underpinning novel collaborative industrial systems is to consider the set of intelligent system units as a conglomerate of distributed, autonomous, intelligent, proactive, fault-tolerant, and reusable units, which operate as a set of cooperating entities (Colombo and Karnouskos, 2009). These entities are forming an evolvable infrastructure, entering and/or going out (plug-in/plugout) in an asynchronous manner. Moreover, these entities, having each of them their own functionalities, data, and associated information are now connected and able to interact. They are capable of working in a proactive manner, initiating collaborative actions and dynamically interacting with each other in order to achieve both local and global objectives.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio