Multi-agent systems for production management in collaborative manufacturing

The paper aims to analyze multi-agent management structures in Small-Mid Enterprises (SME), such to investigate how collaborations among agents could be improved. A SME manager has generally to face with three issues: data management, organization of the production phases, interactions with mid-level management (denoted by “agents”). Data management is necessary in order to have a clear representation of the many types of data about products, orders and resources of the company. The organization of production phases consists on the management of the production process phases from design up to recycling. Based on a clear representation of the product life cycle, the manager will be able to organize the interactions between these agents (each one dedicated to handle a process phase) so as to facilitate the collaboration, and to make effective each mid-level management as far as it is concerned with controlling the operations to be carried out in each process phase. A model of the mid-layer multi-agent management negotiation, according to the “game theory” viewpoint, is proposed, and its main characters are analyzed, in view of its application.