An agent-based approach for scheduling under consideration of the influencing factors in FMS

Production scheduling classically regards the processing units as the only constraining factor. However, scheduling for flexible manufacturing systems (FMS) involves a set of other allocation decisions like allocating jobs to transportation units. Ignoring the relevant allocation decisions has led to widening the gap between theory and practice. In this paper, an agent-based approach for a comprehensive scheduling for FMS is presented. This approach allows for generating a production schedule under consideration of the affecting resources. This is made possible by representing resources as agents. The generation of a schedule results from the goal-oriented interaction among the concerned agents. Based on the illustration of application scenarios, it is shown that this approach results in enhancing the overall performance.