A planning algorithm for distributed manufacturing

Distributed manufacturing (DM), downsizing, and outsourcing are becoming increasingly popular. Processes in manufacturing a product may be distributed at different sites. A production plan in such environments consists of various subplans, team coordination schedules, and decision making on task-team assignments. We present a distributed artificial intelligence (DAI) approach that enables people and computers to work cooperatively as teams in decision making. Our model is a set of loosely coupled, autonomous, communicating problem solver nodes representing a functional unit such as design, production, testing, and accounting, that participate in planning, group problem solving and negotiation. A heuristic algorithm assigns subplans to sites to optimize costs