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

Supplier evaluation process within a self-organized logistical network

International audienceOver the past years the relationships between industrial companies have dramatically evolved, the objective being the improvement of the internal management of each of the partner companies and of their global performance in meeting the requirements of the customers. The control of the relationship between partner companies concerns all the actions they develop together to achieve their common objectives and to react at the right time to any failure of one of the partners. A negotiation between the partners is thus required, and this approach involves the management and organization of each partner’s production. The client companies will have to optimize at the same time both their production and their relationships with their suppliers. The suppliers will have to position themselves in reply to the calls for proposals emitted by client companies and demonstrate their capacity to support these companies while using their own assets. This paper aims at improving the control of the customer - supplier relationship by proposing an organization of all the partners called "self organized logistic network". In this network, each supplier can evaluate his performance using a multicriteria decision aid method. The objective of the suppliers evaluation process is threefold to select the reliable supplier who delivers low-cost products or services that meet the customers’ requirements, to ensure that the suppliers with whom the company operates are reliable and satisfy the needs of the client company in terms of quality, quantity, delivery times, etc, and also to dynamically monitor the relationship between the supplier and the customer

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

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

Experimental assessment of the productivity improvement when using U-shaped production cells with variable takt time

International audiencePurpose – The aims of this research is to discuss the benefits of U layout for production cell operating in variable takt time. Different experiments were conducted using benchmarks, in order to highlight the performance gap between a straight cell and a U-cell. Design/methodology/approach – The implementation of the production cell, in U-shaped or in straight line, is optimized through linear programming based on the number of operators. The two corresponding programs, in Mosel language, use the same approach, in order to not introduce defects in the comparison of results. The study used our own datasets and well known academic benchmarks. Findings – A comparison between the obtained takt times, with equivalent operating conditions, in U-cell and straight cell was conducted. A significant increase of the production rate was observed. This increase has often exceeded 10 per cent to reach 32 per cent. All the experiments show that, with the same number of operators, a cell in a U layout is always at least as efficient, in terms of reachable production rates, than an equivalent cell in a linear layout. 96 per cent give an improvement of production rate. Moreover, the dispersion of the U-cell results is weaker, which suggests that the U-layout gives, in more robust manner, better performances.Research limitations/implications – The results were obtained through a study of various academic benchmarks. The results must be validated on industrial situations.Practical implications – This paper will be very useful for researchers and practitioners in order to understand lean implementations and its derived benefits. This paper will allow them evaluating and analysing the expected benefits of the implementation of the production cell in U-shaped (operating in variable takt time).Originality/value – U-Cells constitute an appropriate solution for a layout of any kind of production cells with variable structure. When facing a significant variation in the demand, the response consists in modulating the number of operators assigned to the cell. This study addresses jointly the problem of U-cells layout and the operation in variable takt time

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

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

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

Multicriteria control strategies of Holonic Energy Systems

© Science Academy Publisher, United Kingdom www.sciacademypublisher.com Papier apportant peu de reconnaissance, du fait d'un processus de relecture très édulcoré..., mais que nous conservons au titre de la datation de nos premiers travaux sur les HES (Holonic Energy Systems).International audienceThe renewable energy sources are, and will be more and more, brought to cohabit on the same site. However, they have not yet the subject of a real overall energy management strategy. As several systems rely on multiple energy sources, power distribution strategy must be implemented by matching the supply and the demand. The balance between production and consumption must be carefully conducted to ensure the availability of power. This paper addresses decentralized control strategies of multi-sources and multi-users energy systems. The objective is to describe, by using the recursion principle of the holonic paradigm, a decentralized multi-sources, multi-users energy system. The bases of multicriteria decision aid method are presented to ensure, in an adequate and automated way, the several possible switchings between the various energy sources of the system

Intelligent Control of Renewable Holonic Energy Systems

International audienceSignificant sources of energy production, of nuclear or fossil fuel type, which can assume all the needs of a country or region, are more strongly contested, either due to accidents of natural origin or following the observation of the dangerousness of the human effect on the global climate balance. Thus governments are encouraging the development of green energy. Any centralized control approach will be obsolete regarding, on one hand, the powers concerned and on another hand, the wide dispersion of these production sources: an irreversible movement to locally produce what is locally consumed is being developed. A decentralized control, based on intelligent entities, is presented. The holonic paradigm is used to represent a Holonic Energy Systems (HES) with multi-sources and multi- users. The several possible switching between the various energy sources are obtained by using a multicriteria decision aid method