Resource-Aware Aggregate Planning for the Distributed Manufacturing Enterprise

The realization of ‘intelligent and resource aware’ distributed enterprises requires substantial development of the underpinning modelling, information management and knowledge representation technologies. This paper deals with the ‘resource-aware, aggregate planning’ of manufacturing operations at early design stages. The term ‘resource aware’ indicates the creation of a dynamic inter-relationship between the planning entities and the enterprise resources, humans and machines. The technologies employed for implementing the pilot methods include; a web-centric co-development environment, unique methods for enriching planning entities with knowledge, and a flexible engine supporting planning scenarios by using evolutionary computing for optimisation and capability analysis techniques for feedback evaluation.