Application of Fuzzy VIKOR in Design Concept of Next Generation Manufacturing

A Holonic Manufacturing System _HMS. is a manufacturing system where key elements, such as machines, cells, factories, parts, products, operators, teams, etc., are modeled as ‘holons’ having autonomous and cooperative properties. The decentralized information structure, the distributed decision-making authority, the integration of physical and informational aspects, and the cooperative relationship among holons, make the HMS a new paradigm, with great potential for meeting today’s next generation manufacturing challenges. A Multi-agent _MAS System on the other hand is a general software technology that deals with the information processing in a control system. In essence, holonic concept is realized by agent based system. Critical issues to be investigated include how to define holons for a given problem context, what should be the appropriate system architecture, and how to design effective cooperation mechanisms for good system performance. Design concept in the context of agent-based holonic manufacturing is a typical multi-criterion decision making problem as it involves several criteria. The organizations need to select the best design concept among five alternative designs for agent-based holonic manufacturing. VIKOR (VlseKriterijumska Optimizacija I Kompromisno Resenje in Serbian, meaning multi-criteria optimization and compromise solution) has been used to select the best concept design. Based on the inputs gathered from decision makers, coordination (A1) has been found the best concept design from the perspective of agent-based holonic manufacturing.