A strategy for the migration of existing manufacturing systems to holonic systems

Holonic systems have been proposed as a possible mechanism for providing the flexibility and responsiveness being increasingly demanded of manufacturing systems. The essential attribute of a holonic system is that it is composed of holons-entities that can exhibit the dual characteristics of autonomous or cooperative behaviour as the need arises. However, if the concept of holonic systems is to be adopted by industry, appropriate strategies to assist in the migration of existing manufacturing systems to holonic systems must be provided-manufacturers are often unable to justify the cost involved in complete replacement of a manufacturing system, particularly when the underlying technology is new. We present a generic migration strategy and describe its application within an automotive engine manufacturing company.