Concepts and Algorithms for Agent-based Decentralized and Integrated Scheduling of Production and Auxiliary Processes

The trend to individualized products and shorter product life cycles has driven many companies to rethink their focus on traditional mass production. New technologies and solution concepts like Industry 4.0 foster the advent of decentralization of production control and distribution of information. A promising technology for realizing such scenarios are Multi-agent systems (MAS). This contribution analyses the requirements for an agent-based decentralized and integrated scheduling approach. Part of the requirements is to develop a linearly scaling communication architecture, as the communication between the agents is a major driver of the scheduling execution time. The approach schedules production and auxiliary operations (transportation, buffering and required shared resource operations such as tools) in an integrated manner so that the interdependencies between them are reflected in the solution. Part of the logistics requirements are concerning constraints for large workpiece handling such as buffer scarcity. However, the approach aims at providing a more general solution that is also applicable to large system sizes that, for example, can be found in production networks where multiple companies engage in a joint production effort. In addition, it is applicable for different kinds of factory organization (flow shop, job shop and open shop). The approach is explained using an example based on industrial requirements. Different experiments have been conducted to evaluate the scheduling execution time. The results of the experiments show the approach's linear scaling behavior. Also, an analysis of the concurrent negotiation ability is provided.