Abstract
This paper investigates heuristics to improve the intelligence of the head of the supply chain in a contract net framework for a multi-agent system used to solve a job shop scheduling problem. The heuristics prioritise the selection of the next operation to be scheduled and allow the head of the supply chain to intelligently influence the scheduled time for the operation. It was found that the policy of scheduling the longer operations first at the earliest time possible, then scheduling the shorter operations allowing them to be scheduled in the gaps left by the longer operations, leads to the improvement of the quality of schedule produced with respect to the objectives of meeting customer delivery deadline, minimising average batch makespan and maximising machine utilisation.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Sousa P, Ramos C (1998) A dynamic scheduling holon for manufacturing orders. Journal of Intelligent Manufacturing, 9(2): 107–112.
Gou L, Luh PB, Kyoya Y (1998) Holonic manufacturing scheduling: architecture, cooperation mechanism, and implementation. Computers in Industry, 37(3): 213–231.
Kouiss K, Pierreval H, Mebarki N (1997) Using multi-agent architecture in FMS for dynamic scheduling. Journal of Intelligent Manufacturing, 8(1), pp. 41–47.
Smith RG (1980) The contract net protocol: High-level communication and control in a distributed problem solver. IEEE Transactions on Computers, c-29(12): 1104–1113.
Shen W, Norrie DH (1998) Combining mediation and bidding mechanisms for agent-based manufacturing scheduling. Proceedings of the International Conference on Autonomous Agents, 469–470.
Vojdani N (1996) Distributed manufacturing control using fuzzy contract net. IEEE International Conference on Fuzzy Systems, 3: 1655–1659.
Saad A, Kawamura K, Biswas G (1996) Performance evaluation of contract net-based heterarchical scheduling for flexible manufacturing systems. International Journal of Intelligent Automation and Soft Computing: Special Issue on Intelligent Manufacturing Planning and Shop Floor Control.
Kim KH, Song, JY, Wang KH (1997) Negotiation based scheduling for items with flexible process plans. Computers and Industrial Engineering, 33(3-4): 785–788.
Adacher L, Agnetis A, Meloni C (2000) Autonomous agents architectures and algorithms in flexible manufacturing systems. IIE Transactions, 32(10): 941–951.
Neiman D, Hildum D, Lesser V, Sandholm T (1994) Exploiting meta-level information in a distributed scheduling system. Proceedings of the Twelfth National Conference on Artificial Intelligence, 394–400.
Zhang Z, Cheng T, Wu B, Yang S (2003) Price-based negotiation for task assignment in a distributed network manufacturing mode environment. International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology, 21(2): 145–156.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2004 Springer-Verlag London
About this paper
Cite this paper
Booth, A.M. (2004). Job Shop Scheduling using Multi-Agent Systems. In: Parmee, I.C. (eds) Adaptive Computing in Design and Manufacture VI. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-85729-338-1_13
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-85729-338-1_13
Publisher Name: Springer, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-85233-829-9
Online ISBN: 978-0-85729-338-1
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive